Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like the Deputies, I meet carers all the time in my constituency office. We help them fill out their forms and follow up on their applications in the same way the Deputies do, and I can only say they do great work. One of my priorities since I became Minister for Social Protection has been to do whatever I can to support our carers because I know the huge work they do and the contribution they make to our society.

In my first budget, therefore, I increased the carer's support grant to €1,850. In budget 2022, I was the first Minister in 14 years to make any changes to the carer's means test, and I followed that up in this year's budget with further increases, whereby it will rise to €450 for a single person and €900 for a couple. The €400 lump-sum payment for carers will be paid in November and carers will also receive double payments at Christmas and at the end of January. From January, therefore, the carer's allowance payments will have increased by €12, which means that over the past two budgets alone, I will have increased the weekly payments carers receive by €24. When we take the increase to the weekly payments together with the lump sums, carers will have more than €1,500 in their pocket in this year, which works out at roughly €30 a week.

I will address the other question in my follow-up response.

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