Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

I thank all Deputies for their contributions to this important debate. On behalf of the Government, I acknowledge the great work provided by carers. I say that on a human level. We all deal with them every day, both in our daily lives and as public representatives. I want to put that on record. The Government is very aware of the valuable work being carried out by family carers. This is evidenced by the extensive measures that have been taken to support carers in recent years.

The approach to date has been targeted and has involved increases to payment rates in conjunction with widening eligibility to payments through, for example, increasing the income disregards for the carer's allowance and making carer's benefit available to the self-employed. This approach was maintained and continued in budget 2025, and it is our intention to continue this pattern in budget 2026.

There have been calls to abolish the means test from 1 January 2026. I thank the Social Democrats for tabling the motion on this issue. I have listened to the various inputs of the Deputies regarding the complete abolition of the means test for carer's allowance from 1 January 2026. The Government has been very clear on this issue. It is our intention to abolish the means test and we have set out a definitive timeline in the programme for Government. We have committed to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. We cannot do it in just one budget. We need to phase it in over a period.

It is important to acknowledge that a range of supports for carers provided by the Department of Social Protection are not based on a means assessment, such as the carer's support grant, carer's benefit and the domiciliary care allowance. In recent years, we have progressively improved the rates of these payments and widened their accessibility to family carers.

The carer's support grant, which people know historically as the respite care grant, is a payment for all full-time carers, even those not in receipt of carer's allowance. It can be claimed by carers regardless of their means or social insurance contributions. As part of budget 2025, the annual carer's support grant was increased by €150 to €2,000 from July. The rate of this grant has increased by €300 since 2021 and is now at its highest ever rate. I encourage all carers to apply for this grant on an annual basis. It comes automatically to those in receipt of the carer's allowance or carer's benefit, but people who are not in receipt of those payments should still apply.

Carer's benefit is based on social insurance contributions. It is a very effective payment for people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care. It is payable for a period of up to two years for each care recipient and is estimated to cost almost €58 million this year. As part of budget 2025 and since January, carer's benefit has been made available to the self-employed for the first time.

The domiciliary care allowance is payable to a parent or guardian in respect of a child who has a severe disability and requires continual or continuous care and attention substantially over and above the care and attention usually required by a child of the same age. From January, the rate was increased by €20 to €360 per month. This monthly payment has increased cumulatively by €50.50 since January 2023.

I want to touch on this payment briefly as an example of how we have engaged with and listened to carers. We listened to the voices of families of very sick children and heard about the financial stresses they experience while their children are undergoing medical treatments. As a result, several changes have been made to this payment, which include extending the period during which domiciliary care allowance can be paid for children in hospital from three months to six months, and making the domiciliary care allowance available for babies who remain in an acute hospital after birth for a period of 18 months. This came into effect from May last year. While I appreciate these may seem like relatively small changes, they have made a difference to the families who are thrust into these difficult situations, particularly the parents of newborn babies who are unable to bring their babies homes after they are born. It is a very difficult time for people.

Census 2022 recorded approximately 299,000 people who self-declared on the census form as providing unpaid care at the time. The Irish Health Survey 2019 suggests a higher figure, in the order of approximately 517,000, as reported by Family Carers Ireland. It is worth noting that figures contained in a Healthy Ireland survey of 2024 from the Department of Health show that some 14% of respondants, or approximately 750,000 people, reported that they are carers, that is, they are providing regular unpaid personal help to a friend or family member with a long-term illness, health problem or disability.

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, has committed to continuing to keep the range of income supports available to carers under review during his tenure to ensure the overall objectives of the schemes are met. The Government has not opposed the Social Democrats' motion. We recognise the important and valuable role that carers play in our communities. That is reflected in the improvements we have made to carer's income support schemes in recent years. We are committed to removing the means test from the carer's allowance payment. As I have stated, we will do that over the lifetime of the Government, but we cannot do it from 1 January 2026 as called for in the motion.

I am sure that Members all agree that an effective social welfare system is one built on principles of the equitable distribution of wealth and ensuring an adequate standard of living for those who are most marginalised in our society. This not only means carers but also disabled people and lone parents and their children. We are now less than one week from the budget, and I assure Members that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, and others continue to strongly advocate on behalf of carers and other marginalised groups. Finally, it is important to emphasise again that the Government remains committed to continuing its long-standing practice of consultation and close engagement with stakeholders and carer representative groups.

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