Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, Deputies Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire and Pauline Tully, for bringing this debate to the House and for insisting that our last debate on Private Members’ business would be on carers because it is such an important issue. I will set out why the Government needs to engage with and act on the concerns of carers about the punitive carer’s allowance means test and how this affects the welfare and quality of life of carers and their families. The fact is that too many carers in my constituency of Mayo are living in poverty. The cost of caring for people with disabilities and others is not taken into account in many cases. Where there are transport costs, energy costs and all of those things, carers are not able to make ends meet.

Carers want to be heard, listened to and respected, and they need more than lip service. This is the Government's last chance to set out a clear roadmap for the abolition of the carer’s allowance means test over a term of Government and to recognise the importance and value of the work carers do. Instead of increasing the income disregard for carer’s allowance, the Government should scrap the means test completely. That is the solution. The money is there to do it. If the Government is not going to do it now, when is it going to be done? It absolutely has to be done now.

That is what Sinn Féin would do. We would get rid of the means test. That is an absolute commitment, not only to carers in Mayo but to those across the State. Sinn Féin values the contribution of carers. We do not simply want to pay lip service to the work they do, which is often lonely and laborious work that lasts 24 hours a day.

We all know that the last census confirmed the number of people in the State providing unpaid care is increasing and almost two thirds are women. The issues around social care and the lack of supply are not going away. The State will experience a growing need for the provision of care, which is why investing in carers is crucial at this stage. The State cannot take our carers for granted any longer. We need to ensure that where people want to be cared for in their own homes, they are facilitated to do so, and that those providing the care are supported and protected from poverty and given the recognition they deserve.

All of this must be planned and the Government has a responsibility to undertake this vital work. I do not believe it will do so, however, because the measures for carers in the Government's last budget - we just passed the Finance Bill yesterday - were tokenistic. The Government allocated €11 million to relax the means test for carers next year, whereas Sinn Féin proposed to allocate ten times more than that, or €100 million.

It is just not good enough. Too many carers are forced to give up work suddenly to provide care and therefore face a cliff edge. The Government must put in place a related carer's benefit scheme, as proposed in Sinn Féin's alternative budget for 2025.

Staff spending months scrutinising people's most personal information to see if they are eligible for a few quid is not the way to go. We can save money by abolishing the means test for carers and the bureaucracy that is put in front of carers every day of the week. We need to support carers, not do everything to put barriers in their way to prevent them from being able to live and having a few quid to live on. That is why we have to abolish the means test for carer's allowance.

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