Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

In response to the speeches of the Ministers of State, while I appreciate the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is doing Estimates, it is a pity she was not able to pop in for some of the debate, in particular in relation to the delay in threshold increases. Sinn Féin would have gone a lot further, committing €100 million to significantly increase the thresholds, than the Government did with a commitment of approximately €11 million. It is regrettable that the Government is delaying it until the middle of next year. There is no logical reason for that. That it has done it in the past does not excuse it. It speaks to the feeling carers have that they are constantly expected to wait and at the back of the queue. That is a huge amount of their frustration. We tabled amendments to the social welfare Bill but the restrictions of the charge on the Exchequer meant they would not be taken on board. I regret that the Minister has not listened to what we and other Opposition Deputies outlined.

The other issue the Minister of State raised, which I would have given more time to in my opening contribution, relates the carer's benefit and the potential to make it pay-related. It is a logical proposal. It is not an expensive proposal for the reasons identified and not many people will be more likely to avail of the carer's allowance but for that category people, whether it is 8%, 20%, 10% or whatever it would be in the end, the fact is there are people who end up providing care very suddenly. They will face a cliff edge because there might be two incomes coming into the household, the mortgage and childcare still have to be paid for and there are different outgoings such as education. Those people currently face a cliff edge. A pay-related approach to jobseeker's makes sense; other payments could be examined in that regard as well. It eminently makes sense for carer's benefit given how suddenly it can arise in certain circumstances in which people have to provide care. I will also mention rates. It is not enough simply to abolish the means test, though I will return to that later. The rates have to increase because there are still carers who receive the full rate of the carer's allowance who are on very low incomes and under pressure because of the cost-of-living crisis, because the last few budgets have not kept pace with the cost-of-living crisis and the value of their payment has depreciated. There are carers on the full rate of the carer's allowance who struggle financially.

To return to the means test, as I said, carers do not do this out of any expectation. They do not do it looking for payment or anything like that. They do it out of love, a sense of responsibility and they deserve it for care for their loved ones. They deserve respect and recognition but they deserve support as well. So many carers work the hours - that is crucially important about this payment and debate. The Minister of State asked what about all the other payments. There is no other payment that the Department of Social Protection administers that demands such a level of labour. They are talking about 35 hours and they cannot work more than 18.5 hours outside of the home. It is not the case that just because you get rid of the means test that everyone who provides even a nugatory amount of care will qualify; they still have to be effectively full-time carers. That is still the case. There will still be conditions. The point is that there are people out there who put in the hours providing care for their loved ones and get nothing at all or very little. I have heard of instances of €2, €5 and €8. Not only is that not right, it is not wise and is not strategically sensible. We look across the world and hear about the crisis of social care in many instances. We are fortunate in Ireland to have such a strong network of family careers. We should do everything in our power and take every opportunity to reinforce and buttress that to ensure families who care for their loved ones at home are in a position to do so in a way that is financially sustainable and sustainable in every way. There are families who make the decision that it is just not possible for them for financial and other reasons. We need to reinforce that and say to carers we have their backs and that we will give them what they need to ensure that if they care for their loved ones at home, we will back them. There are other issues in relation to respite and other areas of support for carers on which the system falls down profoundly but in this area, it is not that we cannot afford to do it; we cannot afford not to do it.

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