Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)

I thank my colleague Deputy Quaide for bringing forward this motion. I want to respond first to some of the comments from the Minister. The Government has not opposed our motion, is not tabling its own amendment and will not vote against the motion. What the Government is not doing is acting on our motion, which clearly sets out that the means test should be abolished this year. It is okay not to oppose our motion and say he agrees with it, but we and carers need the Minister to act on it now. Why is he not acting on it? He says he cannot do it in a single budget and he must be mindful of other people with demands on the State finances and other priorities. The simple case is that, in the budget next week, if it had the courage and ambition to actually widen the tax base and take some measures to produce more finances to do things that are needed, the Government could have a cost of disability payment for people with disabilities. It could have measures to introduce a second tier of child benefit that is needed to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty, and it could abolish the means test for carers. These choices are in front of the Government but there is a lack of ambition and courage from it. The Government is going against all of the advice from all the experts that it needs to widen the tax base and not narrow it. Narrowing the tax base, as the Government proposes to do, is grossly irresponsible and smacks of the kind of decisions that were made back in 2008 when Fianna Fáil crashed the economy.

Let us be clear on this: if the Government had the courage to triple the bank levy, or if it disputed the figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office, and in fact a quadrupling of the bank levy would be needed to fund the €600 million the Minister cites, why not do that? The banks are making massive profits on which they are paying very little tax because they are writing off taxation on their profits against losses in previous years. If the Government is not going to change that law, why not triple or quadruple the bank levy? Then it would have the resources to abolish the means test for carers. That would be the right thing to do. It is a thing the Government could do next week if it was actually courageous about this.

We have seen the waste from Government as well. We have reports today of €12 million being spent on empty offices that were being rented by the Government. I want to give the Minister a quote from a full-time carer from east Galway, Louise Mac an tSaoi, who is the sole carer for her teenage son Liam who has severe physical and intellectual disabilities. Louise feels the means test is restricting carers from living full lives, and that the Government should do a lot more to support families like hers. Louise told the Irish Farmers Journal:

"Liam is 14, non-verbal, autistic and peg fed. He is completely dependent on me as his carer and has been since he was born prematurely at 23 weeks,” [...] “My husband Sean passed away four years ago which meant my Carer’s Allowance was halved as I went on to the Lone Parents Allowance, both of which were means tested. Liam is in a wheelchair as he had one of his legs amputated when he was younger and we need an adapted car to bring him to his various appointments and school and respite. We have had to rely on a fundraising effort by family, friends and the community because I couldn’t get a loan because my income is so low. I know there’s a concern about people abusing a system that doesn’t have means testing, but genuine people like me shouldn’t have to jump through hoops for a bit of financial security when we are saving the country so much by caring for our children at home."

Louise is just one of thousands of carers who are being unfairly put through this means test system. The Minister does have a choice in next week's budget to abolish the means test, if the Government chooses to do so.

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