Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

I thank Deputy Roche for raising this matter. I know he is a vocal advocate for carers and those been cared for. As he rightly said, the programme for Government includes a number of measures to support carers, including a commitment to phase out the means testing for the carer's allowance by increasing the income disregard in each budget, with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. We are all determined to see meaningful progress on the means test through the lifetime of the Government and as part of the upcoming budget. I will not speculate on the upcoming budget as it would get me into all sorts of trouble, other than to say it is important that we show a roadmap for how we intend to get there and that we work together to achieve it. In the meantime, with effect from Thursday, 3 July, the income disregard did increase and this is important. All of these improvements mean that more carers can now avail of the carer's allowance payment. We are all very clear on what we want to do here. The means test for carers is mean and we want to abolish it in a way that is sustainable over the lifetime of the Government.

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