David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)

Carers do invaluable work and each and every one of us, in our constituency offices, deals with family carers almost on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis. I visited one family in Waterford last week. It was a woman who was looking after her father. She was actually sick herself. When I got to the house, she was physically lifting her father, who is much heavier than her, out of a bed and trying to manage that in very difficult circumstances. Her father was very sick.

We know the work that carers do. I had another woman in my constituency office last week in tears because she works part time for an education and training board. As she put it, she did everything right. She tried to work for as long as she could to get as many hours as she could. She has to provide for her family. Her son is in his 30s. He has disabilities and she is caring for him. She did a couple of extra hours unknown to herself - there were some irregular hours - and because of that she received a letter from social services to say she owed €1,600 back, which she just could not afford. She was absolutely livid. For everything she does, for all the work she does and a couple of extra hours here and there, which she did not really notice, she now has this bill on top of all the other bills, by the way, that a family has to pay.

Abolishing the means test is the fairest thing to do. The Government committed to it. A lot of promises were made during the election campaign, which seem to have come and gone. I hope this is not one of them. I support the motion here today. It is one the Government needs to urgently deliver on.

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