Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising a very important issue. We value the work of carers. Michael Woods brought in the carer's allowance quite a number of years ago. He was a Fianna Fáil Minister for social protection and at the time it was a novel concept. It was quite innovative. It started at a very low level, but incrementally things have improved significantly. We committed in the programme for Government to eliminate the means test. There is a tendency in the House to deny any progress at all about anything, and the world always seems to be miserable. There are huge challenges out there facing people and there are particularly huge challenges facing carers. Nonetheless, there has been progress. There are about 100,000 people now in receipt of carer's allowance. The numbers are increasing every year. The number of recipients is up from about 63,000 in 2015, which is nearly a 62% increase. Expenditure has gone from about €611 million to €1.24 billion. It can be more, but that does not suggest nobody cares on the Government side.

We need to reconcile the Parliamentary Budget Office's estimate of €300 million with the Department of Social Protection, which is saying €600 million. That is what is being estimated in the current round of Estimates. The Department is saying it could even go up, because obviously there would be an additional increase in the numbers. That is something which needs to be reconciled in terms of the actual cost. The Government proposes to phase in the removal of the means test. Broader progress will be made on income supports more generally. For example, the income disregard went up in July from €450 to €625 for a single person and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or a partner. That was a result of last year's budget measure. That means more and more people can avail of the carer's allowance payment. In terms of the respite, the carer's support grant itself has been brought up to about €2,000. That is up significantly from where it was some years ago. It is up about €300 since 2021. In the budget there will be a series of measures in respect of carers. Carer's benefit has been extended to the self-employed for the first time since January. Furthermore, the Minister for Social Protection will be bringing proposals to the Government, in the context of the budget, specifically on carers. That series of proposals will be in the context of an overall welfare budget that could be in the order of €1.7 billion or €1.8 billion. However, other categories of social protection have to be looked after as well, in the context of the budget.

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