Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)

I worry that this is one of those promises made during the general election campaign that is then watered down in the programme for Government and that will end up falling by the wayside. In the past few weeks, a number of commitments made by the Government have been abandoned under the guise of the Trump tariffs, by saying that now is not the time for extending. I worry that that is where we are going to end up. The Minister may not have the figures in front of him, but of the almost 100,000 carers, I wager that a significant majority of those are women. There is no getting away from the fundamentally gendered nature in our current society of this work and that is linked to the undervaluing of this work by the State. The refusal to provide a clear timeline with dates to abolish the means test is fundamentally a sexist policy of the Government that places women in a position of continued dependency on their male partners. Economic independence is vital for gender equality, especially at a time when finding affordable housing is the main impediment to women leaving abusive relationships. That is another reason we should abolish the means test.

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