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

It has been increased over the years. It started at ten hours, then went to 15 hours and the most recent increase was to 18.5 hours. We need to strike a balance here because a person needs to provide full-time care and attention and when that 18.5 hours is added to the 34 or 35 hours of care that must be provided, that is a good few hours.

There are a lot of things I would like to do in this budget for carers but I will have to prioritise. That is the reality of the budget process. Increasing the income disregards is something the Deputy raised with me on many occasions.

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