Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The carer’s allowance is the main scheme by which my Department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently 98,311 people in receipt of carer's allowance. Expenditure on the scheme in 2025 is estimated at over €1.24 billion.

The primary objective of the carer's allowance payment is to provide an income support to people whose earning capacity is substantially reduced. In the case of other payments to people aged under 66, this may be because the person is ill, disabled or becomes unemployed. In the case of carer’s allowance, it is to acknowledge that a person cannot work full-time owing to his or her caring responsibilities.

We have made a number of significant improvements to income thresholds in the means test in recent years. In July this year, the weekly income disregard for carer's allowance will increase from €450 to €625 for a single person and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or partner. This amounts to cumulative increases to the disregards of €292.50 and €585, respectively, since June 2022, an 88% increase.

As the Deputy said, the programme for Government sets out a timeline which commits to continue to increase the income disregards for carer’s allowance in each budget, with a view, subject to budgetary space, to ultimately phasing out the means test during the lifetime of this Government. This is a significant commitment, costing a minimum of €600 million per annum. That figure is based on existing claimants of carer's allowance who would qualify for a higher payment, plus existing recipients of domiciliary care allowance and the carer's support grant who would become eligible if the means test was removed. This also assumes new claim inflows remain unchanged. However, the cost stretches to a potential €3 billion per annum if everybody who self-declared as a carer in census 2022 was to qualify.

Most important, I want to make progress but we have to make it in a way that is sustainable and that balances the allocation of the available budgetary resources each year across all priorities. That is why we have committed to a measured and phased approach over the five budgets we plan to deliver in the lifetime of this Government.

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