Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 3, between lines 19 and 20, to insert the following: “Report on introducing a pay-related carers benefit payment

4. The Minister shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on introducing a pay-related carers benefit payment for those people who have to give up work to care for someone. This would ensure that a carer does not see their income fall off a cliff edge and that they see their income protected and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection within 1 month of the passing of this Act”.

Amendment No. 3 calls for a report on the proposed changes to carer's allowance means test thresholds from 1 January 2025 and provides that the Minister "shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on introducing the changes to the income disregards from 1 January 2025 as opposed to July 2025". Amendment No. 4 calls for a report on abolishing the means test for carer's allowance. It provides that the Minister "shall prepare and lay a report before the Houses of the Oireachtas on abolishing the means test for carers allowance" and that the report shall be presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection within one month of the passing of this Act. I want to focus on the issue of the delay up to July 2025. We talked about this previously and I asked whether it was a political or a technical decision to delay until July 2025. I still believe that this is a political decision because it is technically possible to do this in January. For this reason, I will be pressing amendment No. 3.

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