Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The most recent budget was an opportunity to address some of the challenges faced by social protection payment recipients, especially carers and those with disabilities. It was an opportunity to address the challenges facing those who are carers, a cohort of our people who have been let down by this Government time and again. Being a carer is work, often a labour of love, but it is work nonetheless. It is work that saves the State billions of euro yet carers are often treated abysmally. An initial application for carer's allowance can take up to three months to be decided on. If it is necessary to appeal, which happens far too often, there can be a further six months' wait, at least, for a decision to be made. This is a long time to wait. The person for whom the care is provided still needs care and support.

In the recent budget the Government allocated €11 million to relax means testing for carers. Sinn Féin proposed an allocation of €100 million so that many more carers would be eligible for the payment next year. This would have seen 3,754 further carers become eligible for carer's allowance. Instead, the Government opted for a minimalist approach. The Government does not hear carers or their advocates. If it did it would have introduced some of the new income disregards from January, instead of singling out carers and making them wait until July 2025.

Ultimately, carers sacrifice so much of their lives to care for a loved one and they do so regardless of their means. However, we put them through the ringer in the means test. It should be abolished. We need to move towards that. Sinn Féin in government would do that. It is unfair and unreasonable that those who sacrifice so much in this labour of love are means tested.

Those on carer's benefit face a financial abyss when they need to take leave for care. We proposed a pay-related carer's benefit to prevent such a dramatic drop in earnings. This budget has not improved the life of the least well off in the longer or medium term. We have seen no increase in fuel allowance and even though carer's allowance has been added as a qualifying payment, those carers will not be eligible until January 2025, meaning they will miss half of the 28 weeks' duration of the fuel allowance. This is an extremely unfair decision.

With the current surplus, much could have been done for the hardest pressed. Instead, many social welfare recipients were offered tokenistic, one-off payments in the budget. The Government failed to make the adjustments needed to improve the quality of life of most of the vulnerable in our society, including carers, children and people with disabilities.

See this speech in context