Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is appropriate that my second last contribution to the Thirty-third Dáil is on the issue of how we care for carers. I put forward a Private Members' Bill on this issue during this Dáil, which carried on from my work in the European Parliament where I chaired the carers interest group for ten years. One of the pieces of legislation we were successful in bringing forward was recently put on the Statute Book here and guarantees carer's leave.

We are talking about how to support family carers who care for people who need care. In truth, if any of us lives long enough, we will either need care ourselves or will have to give care. Caring is not a woman's issue. It is not just a family issue behind the closed door of the family home. Caring is a societal issue. Those not involved in caring often think it is a matter of a few hours here and there. In truth, to receive carer's allowance, there are quite strict regulations in place. Applicants have to satisfy a means test, which I have said many times must be abolished. They also have to provide full-time care of at least 35 hours per week to a person who is medically assessed as needing it. That is the reality of what we are talking about.

To be fair to the Minister, she has increased the income disregard for carer's allowance. I acknowledge and welcome that, but that increase is from an extremely low base. Between 2008 and 2021, there was no increase in the income disregard for carer's allowance. We now need to finish the job and the next Government must commit to doing so. As I said earlier, care is a societal issue. It is about how we value those who need care and those who give care. I have called the means test "the mean test" on many occasions and that is exactly what it is. Carers in Ireland care for well over 100,000 people. Looking at my own constituency, a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that the contribution of family carers in County Leitrim, for example, saves the State €120 million every year. In County Sligo, family carers save the State €260 million every year.

In County Donegal, family carers save the State approximately €600 million every year. What we are asking for today is reasonable and proportionate. As I said, the next government has to commit to it.

Carer’s allowance is a policy that has been in place for more than 33 years. It is gender biased because it started out when the majority of carers, nearly 100% of them, were women. That has changed, but there are still more women than men carers. The idea was that it would be a small income on the side where the man provided the main income for the household. Therefore, whether a person got carer’s allowance was determined entirely by the income of the main breadwinner. We cannot continue with that situation. I want to hear from all party leaders and Independents that in the lifetime of the next government, whoever forms it, we will guarantee the abolition of the means test or, as I call it, the mean test for carer’s allowance.

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