Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

No words can pay enough tribute to the role carers play in society. Those carers can be elderly themselves, infirm and they can be young people, looking after their loved ones who are vulnerable and disabled people. If the State had to provide that care and those services, it would cost countless billions. However, this is done by people who, as a result of such things as the means test for carers, are effectively trapped in poverty. Many of those trapped in poverty are women. One of the disgraceful aspects of this is that it often makes women carers vulnerable where they are dependent on their male partners. I was shocked, as I have said before, when I met a carer on the street a number of months ago and she talked about a situation where her partner was holding back money for sanitary products. That is absolutely shocking. To put women, sometimes women who may be victims of domestic abuse, in that kind of vulnerable position where they are trapped and dependent on the income of a partner from whom they may be alienated or suffering abuse is shocking.

The intrusiveness and inhumanity of the means test is sometimes equally shocking. This week, a woman in her 70s who cares for her disabled son who is in his 20s came into our office. She asked us to highlight the fact that although her income situation has not changed for 50 years and is hardly going to change when she is in her 70s, it is means tested every two years. Such questions as how she could afford to go on holidays are asked. The only holiday she is able to take is because of the small grants she gets towards that for respite.

It is absolutely unbelievable that somebody could be treated in that way, and subject to that kind of interrogation every two years when he or she is doing such a service, and when he or she has made such sacrifices for their loved ones.

The means test for carers should go. We have said that for a very long time. The Government has badly let people down. It has clearly failed to listen to the lesson of the recent referendum, which to a substantial degree was about the demand to get rid of the means test for carers. Furthermore, People Before Profit not only want to get rid of the means test for carers, but as Deputy Bríd Smith said, they should be given a living income of at least €15 an hour. That would still be cheap at the price for the work they do for our society, for their loved ones and for vulnerable and disabled people.

On a related issue, we believe the means test for disability allowance should also be scrapped, because that is also about trapping people with disabilities, often in poverty. That is the case, for example, if you go over the threshold of €50,000. Let us remember that a report published in recent years showed that people with disabilities have additional costs of €10,000 to €12,000 a year. There are very substantial costs. If you have assets of more than €50,000, it begins to impact on your disability allowance. If, for example, your parents die and leave you a few quid, you then start to have your disability allowance impacted upon. It is absolutely outrageous and traps people with disabilities in poverty. Not only should the means test for carers go, but the means test for disability allowance should also go as part of honouring all the rhetoric and the commitment to the UNCRPD, which is not in reality honoured in the sense of ensuring real equality and support for people with disabilities. I thank the Chair for his generosity in allowing us to have this speaking slot.

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