Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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I am very pleased to have an opportunity to raise the very important issue of the carer's allowance in the Chamber this evening. Everybody would agree that it is impossible to overstate the huge importance and the value of the role of carers in Irish society. In particular, I refer to the role they play and the great social value of the work they do in keeping families together, binding communities and keeping people with disabilities, people with medical problems and older people in their own homes, and helping them avoid the fate of being consigned to nursing homes and surrounded by strangers, even though these may be health care professionals. People deserve to live in a family environment and should be afforded the dignity of availing of this in their twilight years.

Carers also have a very important monetary impact on Irish society. There are 161,000 family carers in this country at present. It is estimated that they contribute the monetary equivalent of €2.5 billion to the economy each year through the amount of hours they invest in caring for family members. We cannot afford to ignore that.

Up until a few years ago, it was fairly easy to access the carer's allowance with the requisite certification and letters from a local GP. Anybody with an essential medical need qualified and was entitled to avail of the allowance for a family member to look after him or her. That is now not the case and I have met constituents who applied for the allowance but were refused, even though they had a significant medical again. They applied again and were refused on appeal. This is not satisfactory because there clearly has been a very significant shift in attitude in the Department of Social Protection. It has not been explained and has not been adopted as an official position. My hunch is that the Government is under severe pressure for resources and I think that a decision has been taken to tighten up significantly on the carer's allowance. The policy appears to be to refuse applications almost universally when they come in. This is simply not adequate. The least people deserve is an acknowledgement from the Government that the policy has changed, that the funds are not there and that the carer's allowance is now much more difficult to access.

I would like to highlight one case in my constituency which sums up the current situation. A woman who I shall call Mary - it is not her real name - cares for her aunt on a full-time basis. She is a full-time carer and her aunt has nine conditions, namely, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, obstructive sleep apnoea, hypertension, asthma, fluid retention and carpal tunnel syndrome. I have met her in her house and she is severely debilitated. She is unable to care for herself. Due to the carpal tunnel syndrome, she has no power in her hands. She has the use of one baby finger and a baby finger and index finger on her other hand. She cannot even make herself a cup of tea. She is taking a huge amount of medicine every day, but she cannot administer that medicine, so her niece is caring for her full-time. She is in receipt of social welfare but has absolutely no assistance from the State in caring for her aunt.

I do not believe it is acceptable that when this woman applied for the carer's allowance she was refused on the basis that her aunt did not fulfil the medical requirements. That is ludicrous, so she applied a second time but was refused again. On the second occasion, her GP, who I know well, wrote a letter pleading with the deciding officer and explained that this woman is not capable of caring for herself and that she would be destitute without full-time care from her niece. She was refused by an unknown deciding officer somewhere in the midlands who based his decision on the fact that she did not meet the medical requirements. This is catastrophic. It is unacceptable. It makes me angry and upset to think that people who are in dire need of assistance to enable them keep people in the community and not surrender them to the State and to State institutions - which is the other alternative and a far more costly one from an economic point of view - cannot be afforded the dignity they deserve by the Government. Our priorities are all wrong. It is extraordinary to see a Deputy from the other side of the House take a principled position on stag hunting, which has no bearing on his constituency and in my view has nothing to do with principle, while at the same time he is willing to stand over this type of abuse by the State of people who are in dire need. I ask the Minister of State to convey that message to the Minister.

Michael Finneran (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking the debate on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection. If the Deputy gives me the details of the case of woman she referred to as Mary, although that is not her real name, I will pass them directly to the Minister and ask him to have it investigated.

On the broader issue of the difficulties experienced by carers in accessing funding under the carer's allowance, entitlement to carer's allowance is based on satisfying medical, means and residency conditions. In determining entitlement to the allowance there are, in certain cases, unavoidable time lags involved in making the necessary investigations and inquiries to enable accurate decisions to be made. In certain instances people applying for the allowance are not in a position to supply all the necessary information in support of their claim. This can lead to additional delays in processing their claims.

The most recent processing figures available - May 2010 - indicate that almost 80% of claims for carer's allowance are processed within 12 weeks. The average time to decide a claim for carer's allowance is eight weeks. This is similar to processing times in 2009. At some 35%, the same level of applications were rejected in both years.

In 2009, 16,574 new claims were received and 5,776 rejected in the year. In 2010 to date, 8,959 new claims have been received and 3,153 rejected, representing a 35% rejection rate. In 2009, some 1,300 appeals were received of which 244, or 19%, were allowed and 570 cases, or almost 44%, were disallowed, 48 cases were partly allowed and 53 cases were withdrawn. If the person supplies additional information with the appeal the case is re-examined by the deciding officer. In 2009, 388 cases were revised on the basis of new information. There are currently 3,608 claims on hands for decision.

At the end of December 2009 there were just more than 48,220 people in receipt of carer's allowance, an increase of approximately 11% on the previous year. Of these some 19,100 are in receipt of half-rate carer's allowance and another social welfare payment. In addition, more than 1,910 people are in receipt of carer's benefit.

The staff and other resources available to the Department are regularly reviewed having regard to the workload arising and other competing demands. The Department monitors available resources against workload on an ongoing basis with a view to ensuring optimum processing times for claims.

The Government is acutely aware and appreciative of the contribution made by carers. It was for that reason, that when resources were available, we invested heavily in improving social welfare rates and services for carers.

During the past decade, carer payment rates have greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit, half-rate carer's allowance and the respite care grant have been introduced and extended.

People caring for more than one person receive a higher rate of payment, equating to an additional 50% of the maximum personal rate. Recipients with children also receive a qualified child increase in respect of each child.

Following this year's budget, the carer's allowance rate for carers over 66 years of age has not changed and remains at €239. The rate of carer's allowance for someone under 66 years of age is €212.

Since the introduction of the carer's allowance in 1990 payments to carers have been increased and expanded. The carer's allowance was increased in 2007, 2008 and 2009 by 12.1%, 6.5% and 3.3%, respectively. As a result, even with the reduction announced in the last budget for carers under 66 years of age, the weekly rate of payment for the carers allowance is still almost 20% higher this year than in 2006 and more than 147% higher than in 1997.

The means test for carer's allowance has been significantly eased over the years, and is now one of the most generous means tests in the social welfare system, most notably with regard to spouse's earnings. Since April 2008, the income disregard has been €332.50 per week for a single person and €665 per week for a couple. This means that a couple with two children can earn in the region of €37,200 and qualify for the maximum rate of carer's allowance as well as the associated free travel and household benefits. A couple with an income in the region of €60,400 can still qualify for a minimum payment, as well as the associated free travel and household benefits package. These levels surpass the Towards 2016 commitment to ensure those on average industrial earnings continue to qualify for a full carer's allowance.

From June 2005, the annual respite care grant was extended to all carers who are providing full-time care to a person who needs such care, regardless of their income. The rate of the respite care grant has also been increased to €1,700 per year in respect of each care recipient since June 2008. The Government will continue to support carers within the resources available.

If the Deputy gives me the details of the case to which she referred, I pass it directly to the Minister responsible, Deputy Ó Cuív.

Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for that.