Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Is tuairim shuimiúil é sin agus b’fhéidir go mbeimis in ann é a phlé. That is certainly an interesting idea. I commend the Ceann Comhairle's predecessor, Deputy Seán Ó Fearghaíl, who did a huge amount of work to introduce people with disabilities into employment roles within the Oireachtas.

On the question the Deputy asked, the Government recognises the challenges faced by disabled people and family carers and is committed to supporting them. For example, with regard to carer’s allowance, the programme for Government contains a commitment to increasing the disregard with a view to phasing out the means test over the lifetime of this Government.  As I discussed with Deputy O'Reilly earlier, that process is well under way.

In budget 2026, I announced further improvements to the carer’s allowance means test that will be introduced next July.  For carers who work, the weekly income disregard will increase by 60%, from €625 to €1,000, for a single person and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers who are part of couple.  This means that means a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €110,000 will still retain their full carer’s payment. Even with an income of €138,000, they would retain a partial payment. Those changes have been generally acknowledged as very positive.

As we just discussed with Deputy Murphy, the targeted measures to support disabled people, include a €10 increase in weekly rates, the Christmas bonus and a €20 increase in the monthly rate of the domiciliary care allowance. Across the disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension and domiciliary care allowance, over €250 million in additional funding has been made available when you compare the Revised Estimates for these schemes between 2025 and 2026. Sin €4 mhilliúin gach seachtain don chéad bhliain eile.

The Department’s disability-related schemes and employment supports are structured to support recipients to pursue employment opportunities. I will come back to discussing that in the next round.

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