Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Both questions relate to the carer's allowance and means-testing. I am dealing with a huge number of reviews for the carer's allowance and they are being done in an incredibly intrusive way, with people being asked to submit bank statements. Instead of it being a qualification just on income grounds, they are being asked to produce bank statements, which are being returned with transactions highlighted where the Department is querying what they relate to. That is not the way to do it; it should be based on income criteria versus justifiable costs. It is incredibly demeaning for many people to have to justify each line of their bank statement.

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