Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)

I welcome the motion and thank my colleagues in Independent Ireland for bringing it forward, which we in Aontú are delighted to support. I am happy to hear that the Government will not be opposing it. Every day in Ireland, carers, both paid and unpaid, provide tremendous service to their families, their communities and the State. The value they provide, both socially and economically, is significantly undervalued by the State. Over 5,000 people, in the main elderly people and the most vulnerable people in our society, are still waiting for home care help. This is absolutely an emergency situation because if they cannot get home care help, many of these elderly and vulnerable people will go into a full-time setting that will cost the State significantly more.

I welcome the programme for Government promises made in respect of the means test for carers. We have campaigned for this for some time. I want to be very clear that the Government must deliver on this. I got a phone call from a constituent weeks after the formation of the Government. This constituent had been canvassed by a Government representative. They phoned me and asked whether, now that the Government had been returned to office, the means test would be abolished. This is genuinely what the Government told the people of Ireland. I asked myself whether this was going to be another promise like the promises the Government gave to the scoliosis families or to the children and families with autism and the assessments of need crisis, and so many other promises. I put it to the Minister of State that this is a promise the Government has to keep. It would save the State so much money in the long term.

The motion quite rightly raises issues in regard to farm families and the fair deal scheme. The fair deal scheme is crippling farm families. It is costing farm families significantly. These are families who have built up their farms over generations. In the time I have left I want to focus on the cap. I attended a meeting of the Irish Farmers Association, IFA, recently. A farmer walked out of the meeting and he said he would be better off dying before he needed a nursing home if he wanted to give as much of his land as possible to his family. I know of one family who had satisfied all of the criteria for the fair deal scheme but because their son had left for Australia for six months, he was penalised and this family had no idea that would happen. The bureaucracy and the criteria need to be addressed. It is unfair that non-farming estates automatically qualify for the three-year cap but farm families do not. In many ways, those restrictions and criteria are incredibly onerous. Take succession, for example. The case I raised just a moment ago cost that family significantly. The issue of rented land also needs to be at looked at. These are key issues facing farm families and I believe they should not be penalised in such an unfair manner.

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