Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

We all acknowledge the valuable role that family carers play. The Government remains fully committed to supporting carers in that role. The carer's allowance scheme is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers. This year, expenditure on the carer's allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.24 billion. There are currently almost 102,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance.

The programme for Government contains a commitment to significantly increase the income disregards for carer's allowance in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. This is a major change to the carer's allowance and to the Irish social welfare system generally. It is important that we make progress in a sustainable manner without limiting our scope to support other vulnerable groups in society.

Recent progress was made in July when the weekly income disregard for carer's allowance increased 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, or 88%, since June 2022. These increases mean that a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €69,000 can retain their full carer's payment. Even with an income of €97,000, they can retain a partial payment. It is important to note that my Department provides non-means-tested supports to carers, including carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the annual carer's support grant of €2,000.

I assure the Deputy about my work in this area. We will continue to advance the programme for Government commitments in relation to care and, in particular, in respect of the means test. We will do so in a sustainable manner and over the lifetime of the Government.

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