Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is an element of Groundhog Day here, whether we are talking about services for families of people with disabilities, school places for children with disabilities or carers. There is general agreement with regard to the billions that carers save. We could not operate without the care provided by family members to those they love. In Ireland and many other places, that has always been relied on. Luckily, it has not failed us to date but unfortunately this State has failed these families over many years. We have a huge level of resources compared to what the State has had historically. We have spoken about billions in the budget for one-off payments but many carers and others I have spoken about previously will say that one-off payments do not cut the mustard in any way, shape or form with respect to the lives they lead and the services they cannot get.

The abolition of the carer's allowance means test is necessary and would be fair. We know people whose lives have changed drastically because of changed circumstances, for example, having a child born with additional needs or having some specific tragedy occur in the household. People dealing with very difficult circumstances are then impacted dreadfully in financial terms. It was put very well by some of my colleagues who spoke of them facing a cliff edge. As Sinn Féin has said, we need to put in place a pay-related carer's benefit scheme. The State has never had so many resources. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, that the carer's allowance means test is scrapped.

I mentioned Groundhog Day. I will raise two issues related to this specific area and the lack of flexibility. The first is the case of a woman, and this is not the first time I have brought it up here. She is a carer in her home. She also works for a home care company and tries to do so within the 18.5 hours per week limit. Like everyone else, she has to deal with other realities of life. The nature of the work with her current client means she sometimes has to exceed the time she is allotted. She works up to 20 hours and when this happens, the carer's allowance section reviews the case. When it receives her payslips it is found that she has worked more than 18.5 hours and she has to pay back the full amount for the week. This is no way to be operating in the modern age. The Government is penalising people who are doing huge work on behalf of society.

Another lady who works for a dementia charity was asked by her boss to fill in for someone who was off sick. She did this necessary work for considerable period. She faced the same scenario but for a longer period and she now has to pay back €28,000. There will be huge numbers of similar cases. I hope that whatever happens and whoever is in government, I do not find myself repeating the same story again.

See this speech in context