Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important subject. It is not the first time we have spoken on it in the Regional Group of Independent TDs, of which I am a member with Deputy Verona Murphy. We have been advocating for a non-means-tested carer's allowance support grant for a long time. As a member of the disability matters committee, I have heard first-hand through listening to people with the experience of living in a household with somebody with a disability, the trauma and struggle that always prevails. When a man comes into my office who in effect is being penalised because he got married, because his wife's income is now being taken into account in terms of the means of the household when they look at carer's allowance, it is not right. You have situations where a young mother decides to give up her career after getting her third-level education and maybe spending three or four years in the workforce. She sacrifices all of that and the potential there for her, to look after her child who has special needs. She is then requested to submit her husband's or partner's income as part of the process to decide the means test. That is absolutely wrong. There is no way around it. It is simply not right. The reason is that we all know, from the Indecon report, the additional cost for people living with a disability. This is not about the Ukraine war, or the cost of living. It is about the cost of living with a disability. The Indecon report suggests and confirms that the additional cost of living with that disability is somewhere between €9,000 and €12,000 per year. Yet, we have been advocating for additional transport services or transport service supports for people with disabilities, and it is not forthcoming.

We have a primary medical certificate procedure process which is horrendous. You will now only be successful if you have lost a limb. It is incredible that we have brought it to a stage where people who really need to get their cars adapted are not getting that adaption done, because they are being refused. As Members are aware, the appeals board resigned over the fact it could not look at any appeal because the criteria were so tight. It was black and white. You had to have lost a limb. That is still going on. It has been under review but the motorised transport supports, which were there, were withdrawn. We now have a situation in this State where people are rightly getting paid money for the fact that they have a disability, to help them with the additional costs of getting around and for their independence. We have other people who get nothing because they were born after a certain date. That is discrimination and inequality.

In his report on disabilities before he stepped down as the Ombudsman, Peter Tyndall stated it was absolutely alarming and needed to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. The Government has failed to deal with that. It now has an opportunity with the non-means-tested carer's allowance to put that in place. I acknowledge there are issues with it, and the Minister, Deputy Humphreys has said there are some issues and she would work to make it happen over the coming number of years. The commitment has got to be there. We have to see it in the parties' manifestoes and we have to see the implementation of that shortly after the new Government is formed. We are treating people wrongly. We are treating carers with disrespect. They are saving the State €20 billion per annum. The cost of a non-means-tested carer's allowance would be something like €175 million. That is not my figure. That is from research conducted by Maynooth college on behalf of Family Carers Ireland. We know what happened with the referendum when people tried to disrupt family caring. People will not have it, but they will support anybody who will support the idea of a non-means-tested carer's allowance.

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