Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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96. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his plans to suspend the periodic means test reviews for carers in receipt of carer's benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33130/25]

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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I ask the Minister his plans to suspend, or indeed abolish, the periodic means test review for carers in receipt of carer's benefit.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The carer's allowance is the main scheme by which my Department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently more than 100,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance. Expenditure in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion.

My Department also provides other supports for carers which are not based on a means assessment, including the carer's support grant, carer's benefit and domiciliary care allowance.

Carer's allowance aims to provide income support to those whose earning ability is greatly impacted by their caring responsibilities and who need income support.

The programme for Government has set out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for carer's allowance in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of this Government.

Significant changes have been made to the carer's allowance means test in recent years. From July, there will be a further increase which will see the weekly income disregard rise from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or a partner. This amounts to cumulative increases to the disregards of €292.50 and €585, respectively, since June 2022. These increases make the scheme accessible to more people and may increase payment rates for those currently on a reduced rate. A carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €69,000 will still retain his or her full carer's payment. The same carer with an income of €97,000 will retain a partial payment. Before the disregards were increased in June 2022, these figures stood at €37,000 and €60,000, respectively, for a two-adult household.

Means reviews form an important part of my Department's control mechanisms to help ensure people are in receipt of the correct amount. It is important to remember that reviews can lead to increases in payments to recipients as well as reductions. My Department undertakes periodic reviews to help minimise incorrect payments.

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire for that and the very welcome news he has given us in terms of the income disregards. That will be very beneficial to many across the country, I am sure, but specifically in my area of Meath West. Many families have been in touch with me about this matter. I was this morning in a meeting of the committee on children. I am very privileged to have been appointed Leas-Chathaoirleach of the committee this morning. We had the Children's Rights Alliance in with us and I raised with it the issue of the child poverty monitor report, which has already been referred to here today and which I think everyone would say makes for very stark reading. I asked the Children's Rights Alliance about measures like this and asked it how much of a difference it could make to people and it has said to me that to families with children with disabilities, getting rid of this periodic review would make a huge difference. It is an important part of budget 2026, if the Department could at all progress those discussions.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I congratulate the Deputy on her appointment as Leas-Chathaoirleach of the coiste.

Means reviews are an important part of control mechanisms. The C and AG and the Committee of Public Accounts have told us that these reviews need to continue not just for control but also to avoid a situation, such as happened in the UK, where people unwittingly amass very significant overpayments, which had to be recouped and caused very difficult situations for families.

We will ensure that repeated requests for information are minimised and that every effort is made to conduct and complete those reviews as quickly as possible to avoid undue stress. We do not want to cause undue stress. We are very aware of the important role family carers play in society but, equally, we have to balance that awareness and that concern for those carers with a duty to ensure that those in receipt of social welfare payments meet the criteria and receive the correct payment. I absolutely assure the Deputy we will continue our work on minimising repeated requests for information.

Aisling Dempsey (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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Again, I thank the Minister for his response. Our ambition and our goal is to get rid of the means test completely, and this is a really significant part of it. These people save us untold money every day in the care they provide in their own families. For example, in one family in my area the mother works part-time just for her own mental health, just to have a little breather from the issues she has at home with her child, and the father took on two jobs to pay for the private therapies that they need but have not been able to access publicly. When they underwent a periodic review recently, they lost their access to any payment. That was obviously devastating for them. It is a blow. They feel it is an insult. I know that is an individual case and we have to govern collectively, but I just-----

John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Thank you, Deputy.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I will not comment on individual cases, but we seek to support families such as that who are in need. In order for us to do that, there will always be rules to ensure that schemes are targeted and that we have the resources to meet the scheme. As I said, we are answerable to the Committee of Public Accounts and the C and AG in that regard. They have said the reviews have to continue to ensure that the right payments are being made and that the right people are getting supports from the Department. As I said, however, we will ensure that repeated requests for information are minimised and, where a review happens, that it happens in as quick a way as possible. In the context of the number of payments being made across all schemes by the Department, the number of reviews is actually relatively small. I will provide the Deputy with those figures in the next session.