Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I have met the carers' forum in the Department. I will continue to use that forum with carers' groups for consultation. I am sure the joint committee will have good input on that, as well as Deputies in this House. We have made changes this year. As I said, carer's benefit was extended to the self-employed as part of budget 2025. At the end of April, we had 139 applications from self-employed people for carer's benefit. We paid the carer's support grant, which is the highest in its history, of €2,000 on 5 June. We will expand eligibility from 2 July. We are very much investing in carers. We have more to do and will continue to do that. I look forward to working with Deputies on that.

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