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

I thank the Deputy. I take the point he makes that if a person takes on a caring role later in life, he or she will not have spent 20 years caring.

We introduced this in January this year. Like all of these schemes, it has to bed in. I followed the recommendations of the Pensions Commission. As I said, it carried out a lot of consultation. I am always happy to look at these things. Our intention is to help people who genuinely had to give up work and cannot go back to work because of their caring responsibilities. I am happy to take a look at that. As I said, the scheme has only been in place since January and it is important that it beds in.

See this speech in context