Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion. It is good that we are discussing it. We in People Before Profit are long-time supporters and advocates of abolishing the means test for the carer's allowance. We have included it in our alternative budget, which we will be launching on Friday. We are also proposing turning the carer's allowance into a non-means-tested living wage of at least €15 an hour, or €525 a week.

Carers have told us repeatedly how demeaning the means test is for them. They say that the long form is soul-destroying. I have it here; it is 28 pages long and includes the means test and the medical report. You also have to fill out to prove that the person you are caring for is disabled or sick enough to need your full-time care. The form states that you can only work or engage in training or education "where you can show to our satisfaction that adequate care has been or will be provided in your absence for the care recipient". To do that, you have to get a letter from your course provider proving how many hours a week in total you are expected to do, and also "show to... [their] satisfaction" what the care arrangements are while you are doing that.

If you lived abroad for more than three months in the last five years, you have to explain to the Department of Social Protection why you did that. Trust is not a concept that the Department of Social Protection is familiar with. Trust is reserved for the wealthy and for business people who are allowed to self-assess for tax. Trust is for businesses and banks which are allowed to self-regulate. Trust is not for the little people. Anyone who needs assistance from the State, or anyone who wants their human right to access public services or supports is not to be trusted. With all of these hoops to jump through, with this total lack of trust, it is no wonder that carers say they feel like they are begging for something they are entitled to.

Begging for something you are entitled to would be a familiar feeling for carers, disabled people and anyone who has had to rely on this uncaring State, this 100 years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, for social welfare and public services. Rather than treating people as human beings with dignity and rights, this uncaring State denies people basic human rights to healthcare, education and housing. It makes people wait so long for basic public services that they are forced to pay for expensive private services instead. Half of carers say they have paid privately for products or services that should be publicly provided to support their caring role.

This uncaring State outsources its responsibilities onto underfunded charities forced to endlessly fundraise, sell raffle tickets and beg for donations. Three quarters of carers say that the people they care for do not receive sufficient formal support. Some 72% of carers have never received respite; never. Just imagine that. It is yet another condition of the carer's allowance that you can only take a holiday if you arrange care for the person you are caring for, and that you are responsible for arranging that. Is it any wonder that 48% of carers say they are severely lonely, and a further 28% are moderately lonely?

Of course, family care is not just work. It is not even just care work. It is care work done with a huge amount of love but it is still hard and difficult work, and it should be valued and recognised as such. Instead, the State has been content to exploit the work and love of family carers.

This has to change. Unpaid family care saves the State €20 billion every year, which is enough for a second health service. In fact, it is a sort of shadow second health service. Family Carers Ireland is correct when it says that without unpaid care, "our health and social care systems would collapse". Despite that, thousands of carers and their families are forced to live in poverty every day as a result of Government policy. The full rate of carer's allowance starts at only €248 a week, even though you have to care for at least 35 hours a week to get that. That is €6.52 an hour. Think about that. It is less than the unacceptably low subminimum-wage rates that employers are permitted to pay 16-year-olds. What does that say about the value that this State places on care, carers and the people they care for? In reality, it is far less than €6.52 an hour because for many family carers, this is a 24-7 job, not a nine to five one.

Of course, that is assuming your household income is so low that you manage to pass the means test to qualify for carer's allowance in the first place. If you are a full-time carer and your partner earns more than €900 a week gross, not net, you are automatically disqualified from getting the carer's allowance. The State says you do not deserve any payment for the full-time work that you are doing, simply because your partner is working. The uncaring State forces you into permanent economic dependence on your partner. Of course, it is mainly women that it does that to, because women are the majority of full-time carers. The State and the Constitution say that women belong in the home and that care should be provided in the home by the family for free. That is what this Government's proposed referendum meant as well. It is deeply reactionary and conservative. It is the legacy of an uncaring Catholic state that we are still not rid of. Its tentacles remain in healthcare, education, and the attitude of the State towards care and carers. It is long past time that we separated church and State in this country once and for all.

Regardless of whether they manage to get carer's allowance, the vast majority of carers are struggling financially. Family Carers Ireland's State of Caring 2024 Survey found that 69% of carers find it difficult to make ends meet, one in five carers had to cut back on essentials like food and heat, and 16% missed at least one rent or mortgage payment just in the past year. It is a national disgrace that in a wealthy country like Ireland, people doing such important work, day in, day out, and the people they care for, are forced to live their lives in poverty. The State has an €8 billion surplus this year. It would cost less than €400 million to abolish the means test in the budget next week. This is fundamentally about what we value in this society. Do we value people and care, or do we value corporate tax breaks and inheritance tax cuts for the big business and the wealthy?

I want to finish by sending my support to the carers and family members who are watching this debate and to all those who will be protesting outside the Dáil at the monster meeting organised by Cara Darmody. It will be at 11 a.m. outside the Dáil. It is for the right of every child in this country to have an appropriate school place with all the supports that they need. They should not have to fight so hard for everything but it is only by continuing to fight that they will ultimately be successful.

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