Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)

Forgive me but I am still none the wiser. Following on from the budget announcement, I submitted a parliamentary question to the Department. It told me that the budgeted €10 million only covers existing recipients. By implication, the 3,000 people the Department estimates will benefit from the measure are people who are already in receipt of carer’s allowance. Am I right on that?

Presumably, the 53,000 people the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation says could potentially be eligible will all have to be brought in the system when the means test is abolished. How many of them will come into the net? How is the Minister going to do that over the next four years? Has he set a target? What the Minister is telling me is that the €10 million is not a fixed amount and, somehow, it can be expanded upon. That is not budgeted for, however. Can he explain, given that the 3,000 people coming in as part of this tranche are already in receipt of carer’s allowance, how many of the 53,000 who are not in receipt of it, will come in and in what year will they do so, from now until the end of the Government’s term?

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