Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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I move:

"That Dáil Éireann: recognises:

— the invaluable contribution of family carers, who provide full-time care to family members with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or age-related care needs, often at great personal, financial and emotional cost;

— that family carers play a critical role in the Irish care system, providing unpaid labour that saves the State more than €20 billion every year, preventing avoidable hospital admissions, and enabling many people to remain safely in their own homes and communities; and

— that, despite their immense contribution to this country, carers are disproportionately affected by social and financial hardship, with many experiencing isolation, stress, and difficulty balancing caring responsibilities with paid employment, as documented in the State of Caring Reports and other research conducted by Family Carers Ireland;

notes that:

— modest increases to the income disregards in recent budgets have not resolved the underlying unfairness of the means test and have left many carers ineligible for support;

— the application of a means test penalises households in which carers are providing full-time care, resulting in many carers being denied support, despite undertaking work that benefits the State and the wider community; and

— the removal of the means test will simplify administration, reduce delays in payments, and eliminate a barrier that currently forces many carers to navigate a complex and intrusive process, simply to access the support to which they are entitled;

further notes that:

— this reform is consistent with a rights-based approach to social protection, recognising that carers provide essential care and should not be treated as means-tested dependents, but as partners in delivering care in Irish society;

— carers themselves have called for an end to the means test, citing the emotional and financial toll of current arrangements, the complexity of the assessment process, and the stigma of being judged on household income rather than on the care they provide;

— Family Carers Ireland, and other advocacy organisations, have repeatedly called for the abolition of the means test, highlighting that current arrangements create bureaucratic complexity, financial stress, and disincentives to claim;

— in September 2024, the Regional Group of TDs introduced a Dáil motion demanding the abolition of the means test for carers by 2027; and

— the Government has not firmly committed to abolishing the means test for carers, and the Programme for Government instead says "commits to significantly increase the income disregards for Carer's Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government";

agrees that:

— the abolition of the Carer's Allowance means test is a necessary step towards creating a more equitable, transparent, and humane social welfare system, that recognises the contribution of all carers, including those who are currently excluded due to household income; and

— the introduction of this measure in Budget 2026 represents a timely opportunity to honour the social contract with carers, deliver on election commitments, and create a system that treats all full-time carers with fairness, dignity, and respect; and

calls on the Government to abolish the means test for Carer's Allowance with effect from 1st January, 2026."

Carers play a vital, under-recognised and undervalued role in our society. They take on the enormous task of looking after a family member with a chronic illness, disability or age-related need. The unrelenting nature of their work often comes at great personal, financial and emotional cost. Carers are the unsung heroes of a society where the basics, on so many levels, are not met for the relatives they are looking after. They experience the sharp edge of the State's failings every single day. Carers' work can be deeply rewarding, yet due to poor support, it is often isolating, draining and demoralising. The last thing they need or deserve is the intrusion and administrative burden of a means test for the carer's allowance, which is a modest payment on which most people would struggle to sustain themselves amid today's cost-of-living pressures. That is why today the Social Democrats are bringing a motion before the Dáil calling for the means test for the carer's allowance to be abolished with effect from 1 January 2026.

Our Government talks a lot about valuing carers. However, those words will be put to the test in the upcoming budget on 7 October. Will the Government continue to tinker around the edges of the carer's allowance means test or will it finally scrap it, as advocacy groups and carers themselves have been urging successive Governments to do for years? Pre-budget kite-flying in newspapers last weekend, as well as the Taoiseach's comments on Leaders' Questions yesterday, indicate that, unfortunately, it will be the former. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary, intends to increase the income disregards for the carer's allowance means test to €825 per month for a single person and €1,650 per month for a couple. While more carers will become eligible for the allowance as a result, a deeply unfair two-tier system will remain, with thousands of carers still failing to qualify for a payment. Additionally, many carers currently in receipt of the allowance will continue to live in anxiety that a slight change in their financial circumstances or those of their partner will tip them into no longer being eligible.

Any Government talk of phasing out the means test over the lifetime of the Thirty-fourth Dáil will be of little comfort to the thousands of carers in need of help now. Carers make extraordinary sacrifices to look after their family members, often at the expense of their careers or academic ambitions. In doing so, they are estimated to save the State a staggering €20 billion per year, with their unpaid labour preventing avoidable hospital admissions and enabling many people to remain living safely in their homes and communities. The means test is an insult to the tireless work of carers who are shut out for the offence of having a modest income or hard-earned savings. With care responsibilities falling disproportionately on women, it is also a clear case of gender inequality. Means-testing effectively sends a message to women that their work is not real unless their household is poor enough. It reinforces dependency, limits autonomy and perpetuates gender discrimination. Over 70% of carers are women, with many forced out of the workplace or trapped in part-time jobs. The means test compounds inequality by tethering their entitlements to their partner's earnings or household savings. In effect, the system tells women that their caregiving has no value unless their husband or partner earns little enough for them to qualify. In a modern society, it is an antiquated method of assessing an application for a State payment. No other form of employment is treated in this way. Teachers, nurses, gardaí and bus drivers receive wages based on their work and not on household incomes or savings, or, absurdly, the earnings of their spouses. Only carers, whose labour is indispensable to the health and social systems, are asked to prove they are poor enough to qualify. This approach implies that carers are seeking charity rather than fair recognition and basic remuneration for their work.

The carer's allowance is officially classified as a social assistance payment, which is deeply problematic. Family Carers Ireland rightly argues that this is inappropriate as it frames care as charity for the poor rather than recognising it as essential work that sustains the health and social systems. It reduces the essential skills and exhausting efforts of carers to a discretionary handout. Advocacy groups consistently stress that this treatment undermines dignity and reinforces the false notion that care is optional rather than work that keeps families together and prevents overcrowding in our health system.

The means test is an extremely blunt instrument. For many carers, even if income disregards are expanded, a modest amount earned by a partner can still result in the loss of the carer's allowance, plunging families off a financial cliff. Regular reviews by the Department of Social Protection leave carers living in constant anxiety that this modest payment will be taken away. Family Carers Ireland has long argued that the means test punishes rather than supports. With over one third of applications initially refused, families are being forced into lengthy appeals. Inclusion Ireland has highlighted that parents supporting a child with an intellectual disability face bureaucratic barriers that pile further stress on top of the exhaustion of their daily lives.

There is widespread acceptance across the political divide that the means test for the carer's allowance needs to go. In fact, three Regional Independent TDs who are supporting the current Government, Deputy Michael Lowry and the Ministers of State, Deputies Grealish and Canney, signed a Private Members' motion in advance of last year's budget seeking the abolition of the means test by 2027.

Raising the income disregards for carer's allowance might sound generous but is fundamentally flawed. It is piecemeal and bureaucratic, and always lagging behind inflation and the actual cost of living. It penalises dual-income families and forces many carers into endless paperwork. It feels like a draining and grinding process for which they often do not have the energy. The prospect of a small pay rise wiping out or depleting an entitlement is a constant worry for many.

Carers deserve better in next week's budget. The Government must commit to the full abolition of the means test, along with greater investment in respite, training and mental health support for carers. Under the Social Democrats' proposals, the full €370 million cost of ending the means test could be met by tripling the bank levy. Treating carers as though they are charity cases whose work is conditional on household income or their partner's wages is callous, unjust and antiquated. Carers need immediate and real change, not incremental measures masquerading as serious reform. Reform would provide immediate recognition and some security and support for carers whose unpaid labour sustains families, communities and the State.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I note that no amendments to this motion have been tabled. I call Deputy Hearne.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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It is the responsibility of the Government to ensure the welfare and well-being of everyone in this country, especially the most vulnerable. Carers provide for those most vulnerable. They are some of the most incredible people in this country. Their tireless and important work needs to be properly recognised. Often when people in the Government talk about carers, they note how inspirational, hardworking and compassionate they are.

What seems to be the harder truth for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Government to acknowledge is that, actually, carers are some of the most exploited workers in this country today. The work done by those who care for children, the disabled and the elderly is not recognised, and there is no real conversation about the value of this work or the cost of this work to themselves and to wider society.

None of us would survive without care. It is fundamental to our relationships as human beings as well as to our survival, yet the economic market model we have places no financial value on care, and that is fundamentally flawed. We have a skewed economy and a skewed society that rewards speculative greed and ignores, penalises and undervalues caring roles. We need to see a change to this. Carers need to be viewed as central to our economy and society for us to recognise the role they play.

Poverty and deprivation disproportionately affects carers. The 2024 Pobal disability and deprivation report found that rates of deprivation are higher among people with disabilities or health limitations. The risk of consistent poverty hovers over these families and it is them whom the Government is subjecting to means-testing that is part of the fabric of their daily lives of worry. They worry about the future for their relatives, their health, the health of those they are caring for, access to services, waiting lists and must constantly push and try to find services. The least that could be done to recognise these carers is to remove the punitive means test. There are adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s who have ageing parents and have started caring for them. These are adults who cannot afford a home and are among the 15% of carers who rent privately and precariously. Of the 37% of carers who are mortgage holders, 17%, or nearly one in five, missed a mortgage payment in 2024. Of the 15% renting privately, 35% missed a rent payment in 2024.

These are carers missing mortgage repayments or rent payments. Alongside the stress, challenges and commitment involved in caring, carers are also struggling financially. Can the Minister imagine the stress of that struggle, the daily toll it takes, and how it shortens their own lives and reduces their ability to provide the care they are so dedicated to providing? There is a cost-of-living crisis, but it disproportionately affects carers. The State must step up and ensure no carers are living in poverty. We need a change in approach to carers. We need Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Government to support this motion. The Social Democrats’ vision for Ireland is a vision for a compassionate, caring republic; a social, democratic Ireland of care, where everyone can live in dignity, a true social democracy. Abolishing the means test is the first step in achieving that.

Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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The Social Democrats have brought forward this motion to abolish the means test for carers, which was promised by this Government, and I am very happy to see there is no amendment to the motion. Carers and people with disabilities cannot wait any longer for the Government to fulfill this election promise. One area that is often overlooked when we speak about carers is education. Family carers are not only the backbone of our care system, saving the State over €20 billion every year through their unpaid labour, but they are also parents, partners and guardians who want the same opportunities for learning, training and participation in society that everyone else does. Yet, the way the carer's allowance is structured today actively undermines those opportunities. Currently, carers may work, study or train for 18 and a half hours a week while still providing 35 hours of care. Many try to upskill or pursue education in order to keep one foot in the workforce, but that rigid means test penalises them. A modest increase in household income, perhaps through a partner's job or small bursary linked to a course, can push a family over the threshold, cutting them off from vital support overnight. These restrictive rules are void of any common sense and are a deterrent to education. Access to education should not be a luxury reserved for those who can afford to risk losing their allowance. Education can help carers reskill after years out of the labour market, improve their mental health through social participation, and allow them to contribute in different ways to society. However, under the current system the choice is often too stark, making them choose care or education but not both. I think particularly of the young people I met in the audiovisual room last year. These young people are caring for family members while going to school and should be able to dream of further and higher education like many young people do. The unfairness of the means test is stark when compared with conditions in other professions, like teaching and nursing and the Garda. They are never told their pay depends on their spouse's income, yet over 70% of carers, the vast majority of them women, are forced into economic dependency through this system. By treating the carer's allowance as a social assistance payment rather than the recognition of essential work, we send a clear and damaging message that care has no intrinsic value unless you are poor enough to qualify for support.

The numbers speak volumes. Approximately 37% of applications are refused. That is nearly 9,500 refusals every year. Appeals drag on for an average of 23 weeks. This is bureaucracy and it is a waste of time and energy that carers could be investing in their families or indeed in their own education. Worse still, some 6,500 full-time carers receive nothing more than the once-off carer's support grant of €2,000 annually, leaving them significantly disadvantaged compared with those who do qualify. This reform is affordable. The estimated cost is €370 million, a figure that can be met, for example, by tripling the bank levy. This is a small price to pay for recognising carers as equal partners in our health and social system. Education opens doors but for too long, carers have found those doors slammed shut by an unfair, outdated and punitive means test. Let us open those doors by removing this barrier once and for all.

Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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On my first day in the Dáil last year, the Taoiseach quoted the former Governor of New York Mario Cuomo, saying, “You campaign in poetry; you govern in prose.” He then went on to say, “I am not sure that there was much poetry during the recent [general election] campaign”. I saw it differently. Poetry is not always uplifting. Sometimes it recounts sorrow. It is not always magnificent; sometimes it is dark and sad. Poetry is also told in tragedy and defeat.

There was poetry in Kanturk that day in November when a care worker, plunged into poverty by this Government and the ones before it, a woman with little power other than her will and her voice, challenged the most powerful man in the country in a supermarket. There was great poetry in the election results days later, which meant his party returned fewer seats than projected and relegated him to second fiddle versus his rivals in Fianna Fáil. There is a sad rhyming in his replacement, a man who sat at the Cabinet table that crashed the economy 15 years ago now telling the country there is no money to help alleviate the plight of those who care for others.

Rightly, the focus of disabilities is on those who have them. They should be at the centre of the discussion. We must deliver pay parity and good conditions for care workers, in particular section 39 workers, who have been so badly treated. However, I am also conscious of the enormous toll caring has on families and individuals who, out of generosity of heart, help those who are more vulnerable than themselves and, in the process, often make themselves vulnerable. Caring is work. It is hard work. It is some of the hardest work any of us does. All caring is work. It is work that is not glorified. It does not bring riches or fame, but it should bring security and it should, like all modern work in a modern republic, bring dignity. That applies to all of it, regardless of who does it or for whom they do it. The means test, among other ways carers are treated, is an affront to the dignity of that work. It effectively says that at some point for some people, a carer's labour should be free and permanently so, which seems an impossible position for any sane-minded person to take.

It effectively says that at some point, for some people, a carer's labour should be free, and permanently so, which seems an impossible position for any sane-minded person to take. Not only should carers have dignity, they should be valued. They save the State billions, in economic terms, and provide immeasurable love and support for those in our society who desperately need it.

What more noble calling is there in our country than to serve those less fortunate than us. There was poetry in our election, if we sought it, and there will be poetry in our politics again, when the electorate seeks it a few years from now, but there will be never poetry in this Government. For, "Conservatism makes no poetry, breathes no prayer, has no invention...", as a great writer once said. Perhaps the Taoiseach and his Government should read Emerson and expand their repertoire of political thought. Perhaps they should consider the critical role care plays in our society and economy and consider the poetry of supporting the most vulnerable in our society. Voting for this motion to abolish the means test for carers would be a good start.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Quaide as na Social Democrats as an rún seo inniu. Ní bheimid ag cur i gcoinne an rúin. We will not be opposing the motion put forward by Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats. I welcome the opportunity the motion gives us to discuss the very important issue of carer's supports that are provided by my Department. The motion is timely and I welcome in particular the focus given by Deputy Cummins to the educational aspect. That issue was raised with the Department in June during the carer's forum we host annually and I am committed to looking at it. She raised a very important issue.

The Government remains committed to phasing out the carer's allowance means test over the term of this Dáil. We cannot do so in a single budget, as the motion proposes, and I will deal with that point later, but we will do so in a progressive manner. Over the years we have sought, and ensured, that the interests of carers are front and centre of budget discussions. This approach has been evidenced across the suite of care income support payments. As part of budget 2025, we extended the social insurance-based carer’s benefit scheme to the self-employed for the first time. In June, we increased the carer’s support grant. It now stands at €2,000 a year, its highest ever rate. Significantly, we also delivered on the commitment to provide a pension solution for long- term carers. This hugely important reform enables long-term carers, predominantly women, as was acknowledged by Deputies in the Social Democrats, who have been caring for an incapacitated dependant for 20 years or more to qualify for the State pension. Under the scheme, for the first time, full-time carers can get long-term carer's contributions to cover the gaps in their contribution record that arose as part of their caring, and that can then help them to qualify for the contributory pension.

Since January 2024, long-term carer's contributions can be awarded to somebody who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years or more. These contributions are treated the same as paid contributions for the contributory State pension entitlement only. They can be used to fill gaps in that person's contribution record, including satisfying the minimum 520 paid contributions required. Over 12,600 applications have been received since the introduction of the scheme. At the end of August of this year, over 2,800 customers had been awarded over 20 years of long-term carer's contributions.

There have been other positive developments. The carer's allowance is now included as a qualifying payment for the fuel allowance, once the other qualifying conditions for the fuel allowance have been satisfied. We have increased the carer's allowance disregards, which I will come back to later.

The income supports for carers are the carer's allowance, carer's benefit, the domiciliary care allowance and the carer's support grant. Investment in these payments in 2025 is expected to be in the region of €1.9 billion. The carer’s allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Almost 102,000 people are currently supported by the carer's allowance. This year, investment in the carer’s allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.24 billion.

As all Deputies are aware, the carer’s allowance is a means-tested payment awarded to those who are providing full-time care and attention to people who need such care. We will significantly increase the income disregards in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test over the lifetime of this Government. The carer’s allowance operates on the basis of a means test. In short, we agree with Deputy Quaide that the means test should be abolished. There is nothing between us on that. However, it is not as simple as just abolishing the means test in one fell swoop, much as many of us might want to do. I have to be mindful of other demands on the State finances and other priorities including addressing child poverty, direct payments to people with disabilities and other areas within my Department. Means tests were developed as a way of targeting limited resources at those who have the lowest incomes. They are used not just for carer payments but for pensioners, disabled people, lone parents, jobseekers and others. It is a system that applies across the board, based on supporting households with the lowest means.

However, removing the means test, in effect, creates a new scheme for those meeting the scheme’s basic caring condition. This change has wider cost and policy implications, including under EU rules that differentiate between social assistance or mean-tested payments, on the one hand, and social insurance and universal payments, on the other. The former can be subject to conditions relating to residence; the latter two types of payment are not. This is why, while we are committed - and I absolutely guarantee the Deputy and the House of my strong commitment - to eliminating the means test, we have to do so in a phased and measured approach that enables us to balance improving outcomes for carers with also improving outcomes for people with disabilities, pensioners and children and in a way that does not create unanticipated exposures. In doing so we will build on the significant improvements which have already been made to the capital and income disregards, allowing many more carers to qualify for the carer’s allowance. The disregards for the carer’s allowance are now by far the highest income disregards in the social welfare system, higher than those for any other weekly payment.

The capital and savings disregard was increased from €20,000 to €50,000. This equates to a disregard of €100,000 for carers who are part of a couple. Since 2021, the carer's allowance income disregards have been increased from €332.50 to €625 for a single person, and from €665 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or partner. These disregards have practically doubled, amounting to cumulative increases of €292.50 for a single carer and €585 for a carer who is part of couple. As a result, a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €69,000 will retain the maximum payment. The same carer with an income of €97,000 will retain a partial payment. Before the disregards were increased in June 2022, that figure of €69,000 figures stood at €37,000 and the figure of €97,000 stood at €60,000.

The number of carers on the carer’s allowance has increased by over 8,000 to almost 102,000. The increase in the disregards also means that many current recipients receive a higher payment than they would have otherwise. It is notable that from July last, when the latest increase occurred, 98.4% of existing carer’s allowance recipients have received the maximum possible rate, whether they are on a half-rate or full-rate payment.

In addition to significant improvements to the means test, over the last four budgets the weekly carers payments - the carer's allowance and carer's benefit - have been increased by €41 per week. As part of budget 2025, the rate of the carer's allowance increased by €12 to €260 per week for a carer aged under 66 years caring for one person.

Before concluding, I wish to address the variation in the estimated cost of abolishing the means test for carers. The figure of €375 million that has been quoted is taken from a costing carried out by the Parliamentary Budget Office. It assumes that some 25,600 carers would become eligible for the scheme if the means test was removed. My Department has conservatively estimated that the cost of removing the means test for the carer’s allowance would be in the region of €600 million each year. This is based on our internal administrative data, which tells us that there are some 146,000 care recipients in our country. In the absence of a means test, it is reasonable to assume a carer’s allowance payment could be paid in respect of each of these care recipients. However, to facilitate further discussion, I will provide Deputy Quaide with our methodology and a breakdown of this costing after the debate on this motion.

The Deputies speak of tripling the bank levy to pay for this measure. We have already demonstrated how the Government has supported carers over recent years. However, we have just heard calls for other groups to be catered for during some of their colleagues' speeches today.

As Minister for Social Protection, I am committed to continuing the work that has been done for carers and to growing it further, both for carers who are in receipt of the carer’s allowance and any carers who will benefit from further changes to income disregards. As Deputy Quaide's colleague said, however, I also have a responsibility to other vulnerable groups, including lone parents, children experiencing poverty, working families, and people with disabilities. I have no doubt that every Deputy will support me but I have to be realistic; my resources are not unlimited.

We are not opposing this motion. I welcome this debate and the good ideas that are coming. I will engage further on those ideas. In the programme for Government, we are committed to phasing out the carer’s allowance means test and we will do this in a progressive manner over the lifetime of the Government. All of us recognise the valuable contribution that family carers are making every single day. We are doing a lot to improve the payments to carers and will continue to do so because we recognise that much more needs to be done. We will not be found wanting in terms of delivering on this. We have to ensure that it is sustainable.

Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats)
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I thank my colleague Deputy Quaide for bringing forward this motion. I want to respond first to some of the comments from the Minister. The Government has not opposed our motion, is not tabling its own amendment and will not vote against the motion. What the Government is not doing is acting on our motion, which clearly sets out that the means test should be abolished this year. It is okay not to oppose our motion and say he agrees with it, but we and carers need the Minister to act on it now. Why is he not acting on it? He says he cannot do it in a single budget and he must be mindful of other people with demands on the State finances and other priorities. The simple case is that, in the budget next week, if it had the courage and ambition to actually widen the tax base and take some measures to produce more finances to do things that are needed, the Government could have a cost of disability payment for people with disabilities. It could have measures to introduce a second tier of child benefit that is needed to lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty, and it could abolish the means test for carers. These choices are in front of the Government but there is a lack of ambition and courage from it. The Government is going against all of the advice from all the experts that it needs to widen the tax base and not narrow it. Narrowing the tax base, as the Government proposes to do, is grossly irresponsible and smacks of the kind of decisions that were made back in 2008 when Fianna Fáil crashed the economy.

Let us be clear on this: if the Government had the courage to triple the bank levy, or if it disputed the figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office, and in fact a quadrupling of the bank levy would be needed to fund the €600 million the Minister cites, why not do that? The banks are making massive profits on which they are paying very little tax because they are writing off taxation on their profits against losses in previous years. If the Government is not going to change that law, why not triple or quadruple the bank levy? Then it would have the resources to abolish the means test for carers. That would be the right thing to do. It is a thing the Government could do next week if it was actually courageous about this.

We have seen the waste from Government as well. We have reports today of €12 million being spent on empty offices that were being rented by the Government. I want to give the Minister a quote from a full-time carer from east Galway, Louise Mac an tSaoi, who is the sole carer for her teenage son Liam who has severe physical and intellectual disabilities. Louise feels the means test is restricting carers from living full lives, and that the Government should do a lot more to support families like hers. Louise told the Irish Farmers Journal:

"Liam is 14, non-verbal, autistic and peg fed. He is completely dependent on me as his carer and has been since he was born prematurely at 23 weeks,” [...] “My husband Sean passed away four years ago which meant my Carer’s Allowance was halved as I went on to the Lone Parents Allowance, both of which were means tested. Liam is in a wheelchair as he had one of his legs amputated when he was younger and we need an adapted car to bring him to his various appointments and school and respite. We have had to rely on a fundraising effort by family, friends and the community because I couldn’t get a loan because my income is so low. I know there’s a concern about people abusing a system that doesn’t have means testing, but genuine people like me shouldn’t have to jump through hoops for a bit of financial security when we are saving the country so much by caring for our children at home."

Louise is just one of thousands of carers who are being unfairly put through this means test system. The Minister does have a choice in next week's budget to abolish the means test, if the Government chooses to do so.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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Earlier this week, my party leader, Deputy Cairns, asked a very simple question. In what other profession in this country are people subjected to a means test, just to be recognised for the work they do? It is a stark question that gets to the heart of the matter. That is what this is about. Carers are professionals in every sense of the word. They do the work that is essential to the running of our health system, work that saves this State over €20 billion every single year, yet they are treated as though their contribution is somehow lesser and that they should be judged before they are asked to serve. It is an old adage at this point but politics at its very heart is about choices. Next week, we get to see the choices of this Government. The Minister has said there is very little between us in the sense that all of us are seeking to remove the means test for carers. However, time is the difference. A means test that is phased out over the next four years is four more years of carers having to justify their poverty, with some having to stand beside and be based on the income of a partner and others simply having to miss out because their means are just a little bit too high, even though the contribution they give is far more.

The motion we bring today is simply about a choice. It is a recognition that we can abolish the means test for carers in this budgetary cycle to take away the strain, stress and anxiety for anyone who has to justify their means before they can contribute in the manner that they do. The facts speak for themselves about the Government's choices. According to Family Carers Ireland, two thirds of carers experience financial distress. Almost half say they have to cut back on essentials like heating and food to make ends meet. Many are caring around the clock, with no pension, no security and often in total isolation. On top of that, they are put through an intrusive and bureaucratic process that judges them not on the care they provide but on their household income or that of their spouse. It does not make sense. In what world is it acceptable to make the lives of carers, people who are already stretched beyond breaking point, even harder?

The Minister told us that abolishing the means test is too complicated and that there are other pressures. When we talked about tripling the banking levy, he talked about how we also have to care for lone parents, children experiencing poverty and people with disabilities. We do not need to pit vulnerable groups against other vulnerable groups. There are other ways. We are talking about the bank levy. We do not need to talk about people with disabilities. The Social Democrats' fully costed budget tomorrow will include measures for people with disabilities, to remove 40,000 children out of poverty and to abolish the means test for carers. There are choices. Tonight's vote, which the Government is not allowing us to have, would have come down to the choices the Minister is making for family carers.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister for being here and for his contribution. We are starting to see a trend across the House in the words we are using about carer's allowance. It comes down to choices. The Minister has spoken about the idea that he cannot abolish the means test now. I take issue with that. The Government can do it but it chooses not do. As he will agree, family carers make an invaluable contribution to our communities and society, providing full-time care to family members with disability, chronic illness and age-related care needs, often at great personal, financial and emotional cost. Back in 2011, the Minister said: "[t]he coverage of social welfare is frequently reduced to soundbites and slogans targeted at particular audiences, depending on the speaker's particular political view." He further said: "The Department, as one of the most important Ministries in expenditure terms, should be the lead Department in breaking the cycle of poverty." I have no doubt the Minister meant those words at the time and given the opportunity he would say and mean them again. However, now the big difference is that he has the opportunity. This Government has the opportunity to meaningfully address structural poverty.

I appreciate that the Minister mentioned child poverty levels and different stresses on his Department in terms of costs. We need to know how this Government intends to break the cycle of structural inequality and poverty in Ireland. It is his commitment to abolish the means test for carers.

Carers deserve the rightful acknowledgement of the value of their role in our society. In the Minister's words again, the media attention given to the Department of Social Protection needs to reflect its importance in government, and more importantly, the lead role it and the Minister can play should they choose in rebuilding society. We are back to that word "choices". We firmly believe in it and are offering constructive proposals about how we could abolish the means test for carers now. If not now, why? If not now, when?

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Deputies for bringing forward the motion. The Government knows well the difference between not opposing something and supporting something. The Minister is around long enough to know the nod in the direction of saying something is a good idea and actively and proactively working for it are two very separate things. I urge the Government to not just not oppose this motion, but also accept it in the spirit in which it is put forward here this morning.

The need to abolish the means test for carers is made up of thousands and thousands of individual needs and millions of hours of care delivered. Behind closed doors, families struggle to care for their loved ones and pay their rising bills. The motion tells us that carers save the State more than €20 billion every year. That is likely an underestimation of the real situation. Caring work is work and just because it is done with love is no excuse for taking advantage. That is effectively what the State does; day in, day out, it takes advantage of the love people have for their family members and the care they deliver. Carers are exploited and exhausted. They are sick and tired of having to beg for every tiny little bit of help and support. When they get that help, it often comes very late and is not enough to keep pace with the rising cost of living.

I was contacted in advance of this motion by a woman from my constituency. I will call her Laura - I generally try not to say people's names - because to be honest, it is humiliating enough the way people have to beg so I will call her Laura. She tells me that she cares for her son. He is now 14 years old. In May, she had to leave her permanent job where she had worked for 23 years in a management and specialist role because the demands of caring and working were gruelling. She could not keep it up anymore. She is not eligible for carer's allowance because of her husband's salary, which is not something we should be saying in 2025. She asked me to remind the Minister that during the previous election, it was promised that the means test for carers would be abolished. She wants to know when that promise will be delivered.

There has been a lot of talk about the cliff edge a person faces and the pay-related jobseeker's allowance was brought in. This woman left her job. We talk about a cliff edge but this woman gets nothing. She gets absolutely nothing. She is punished for making up for the failure of the State to provide adequate services for her son. She is punished for that. I ask the Minister to reflect on that.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an rún seo. I thank Deputy Quaide and the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. In reality, there should not be need for this debate today. It is absolutely beyond argument that the carer's means test is unfair and disrespectful. As my colleague set out, it is actually demeaning. It needs to be scrapped. Two days before the general election was called in the previous year, a Sinn Féin motion was passed in the Dáil calling for that means test to be abolished. During the campaign, we all stood shoulder to shoulder with Ireland's carers in pushing for that to happen. The inescapable truth is that carers have been let down and left behind for decades by successive Governments.

When it comes to platitudes, barren words and empty promises, there is absolutely no shortage. Indeed, there is an abundance but when it comes to really showing up for carers and their families with the fundamental changes they need and deserve, all of that commitment dries up. The action never ever matches the promise. What carers get instead is a slow motion tinkering around the edges and they are asked to wait and wait, whether it is for the scrapping of the means test, the provision of respite care, adequate services or vital supports. It should not be this way. Carers are the backbone of our society and in many ways, they are the best of us. Every day they do incredible work and they save the State billions of euro. We know this. They do it for family with pure love. It is 24-7 and non-stop. There is no clocking out and carers just keep on going.

The sad reality that has to be confronted and named is that the State and Government take advantage of carer's love and their work. It is not fair, it is not right, it is not acceptable and it has to end. The means test has to go. That is where we are at so do it.

Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I strongly welcome and support this motion. I worked as a carer for people with disabilities for 18 years. I have witnessed first-hand the invaluable work carried out by thousands of other carers across this country and I can say this: I, along with the carers who I worked with over those years, am sick and tired of hearing the Minister and his colleagues singing their praises in this Chamber. Enough of the empty words of praise. The time for the respect and support the Minister promised is long passed.

We are nearly a year on from the general election, an election where the Government made a clear commitment to abolish the means test for carers. Yet, here we stand with no plan, no timeline and only more excuses. Scrapping the means test is not a complex policy puzzle. It is a straightforward act of justice. It should have been a day one priority for this Government. This broken promise ensures that thousands of carers, who provide vital work in every community, are left struggling financially each and every week. These carers have sacrificed their own financial security to care for a loved one. They stepped up where the State stepped back. Let us not forget that the vast majority of carers are women. They bare the brunt of the Government's failure. Their work saves the State billions of euro, yet the Government has pushed them into financial dependency, forced to rely on a partner's income just to get by. The time for words of praise has passed. It is time for action and the first action must be the abolishment of the means test now. Week after week, I am contacted by parents of children with disabilities. These are parents who are struggling, fighting and sacrificing in every way imaginable. For them, being a carer is not some nine-to-five job. For them, it is 24 hours a day, hands-on caring, with little or no respite. Thousands of them do not even get the recognition of being a carer. Let us be clear: the State has not just failed these carers. They are shamefully failing those in need of care.

I have stood with grown men and women who have broken down in despair because they want to stay in their own home and not be put in a nursing home. They want to stay in the environment they have known their whole lives. Families are torn between caring for their loved ones or paying their mortgage. Let us be clear: the carer's respite grant is not used for respite or holidays. It is swallowed up by household bills. Those in need of care are failed from cradle to grave. We are letting down the most vulnerable among us.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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Family carers deserve an income support that recognises their care. The current system does not do that because if you are living with someone or are married to somebody, no matter how much care you provide and whether it is 24-7 or whatever it may be, it does not matter. The care does not matter because your partner, your husband and the person you are living with has an income. I always recall a constituent who came to my office many years ago. She was in receipt of the blind pension. Her partner got a promotion at work, which was something to celebrate. She lost her blind pension. She was still blind but it did not matter because her partner got a promotion at work and their household income increased.

It is so inherently flawed in a system where your need means nothing at all. It depends on the income and the household income.

I remember when I was my party's spokesperson on social protection and in 2022, the then Minister, former Deputy Humphreys, announced after 14 years an increase to the income disregard. It was announced at the time, "Minister Humphreys introduces first changes to the means test for carers in 14 years", as if it was something to be proud of. What it actually meant was that from 2008 to 2022, there was no increase in the income disregard and that was not something to be celebrated. That is how far behind this Government is now with regard to abolishing the means test. All of those years were lost to family carers. It also reminded me of the national carers' strategy, published in 2012. It was to be cost-neutral. Family carers stood back as they were told there were limited resources. They have waited but they are not getting what they deserve. There has been a lot of talk on this issue. The budget is an opportunity to do something for family carers and give them what they deserve, which is to abolish the means test.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Carers do invaluable work and each and every one of us, in our constituency offices, deals with family carers almost on a daily basis, certainly on a weekly basis. I visited one family in Waterford last week. It was a woman who was looking after her father. She was actually sick herself. When I got to the house, she was physically lifting her father, who is much heavier than her, out of a bed and trying to manage that in very difficult circumstances. Her father was very sick.

We know the work that carers do. I had another woman in my constituency office last week in tears because she works part time for an education and training board. As she put it, she did everything right. She tried to work for as long as she could to get as many hours as she could. She has to provide for her family. Her son is in his 30s. He has disabilities and she is caring for him. She did a couple of extra hours unknown to herself - there were some irregular hours - and because of that she received a letter from social services to say she owed €1,600 back, which she just could not afford. She was absolutely livid. For everything she does, for all the work she does and a couple of extra hours here and there, which she did not really notice, she now has this bill on top of all the other bills, by the way, that a family has to pay.

Abolishing the means test is the fairest thing to do. The Government committed to it. A lot of promises were made during the election campaign, which seem to have come and gone. I hope this is not one of them. I support the motion here today. It is one the Government needs to urgently deliver on.

Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. It is simple: the means test for carers needs to be abolished. The means test excludes thousands of carers right across this State. I will give some examples. These are real people from my constituency who have come into my constituency office looking for help. There is a woman from my own area who was in receipt of carer's allowance. Her income and her partner's income were reassessed in January 2025. The Department used her partner's payslip from November 2024, which included his Christmas bonus. She explained this to them and then submitted the payslips for January and February 2025 to show what the normal income was. The Department continued to assess his income from the November payslip and reduced her carer's allowance by over €200 a week. That is nearly the entire payment. She appealed this and only yesterday - I will send the Minister the details - we got news that she lost this appeal. This is simply not fair.

Other carers tell me they do not even bother to apply for the carer's allowance, even though they should get it, because they know they are going to go over the threshold. I think this is something the Government wants. Other carers are afraid to go back to work in case their carer's allowance is taken off them. It is creating a glass ceiling for carers.

There is another lady who is working part time and caring for her son. Her partner refused a promotion because their income would bring them over the threshold and she would lose the carer's allowance. Can the Minister tell me how this is fair, valuing carers or valuing the people who carers care for? It does not matter what your income is; a carer is a carer. The Government failed to keep its promises at the last election. It has a chance to rectify that in the budget and a chance to keep its word to the people.

I thank the carers in this country for the service they provide. It is absolutely invaluable. I value them and it is high time the Government valued them too.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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When we speak about carers, we are speaking about people who take on a huge responsibility for no other reason than that they deeply care for the person they are providing the care for. Over 500,000 people across this State are quietly caring for their loved ones. They do not do it for reward. They do it out of love.

Carers can be anybody at any stage of their lives. We have parents caring for a child, children caring for their parents, or a close friend who steps in for someone who does not have the family support around them. They do not have the time to protest. They do not have the energy to fight this system and they feel they are being continually ignored by the Government.

There is not a week that goes by where I do not see somebody distraught in my office after being refused their carer's allowance. This means test adds nothing but hardship and stress to lives already stretched to the limit by a system that is not offering them enough support. Carers are struggling and many are living below the breadline. That is a failure of the Minister's Government, especially when we see the billions of euro these carers are saving the State year on year. The very least this Government could do is treat them with the respect and dignity they deserve. The Minister can do that by simply abolishing this unfair and cruel means test.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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Hear, hear.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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First, I commend the Social Democrats on bringing forward this motion. Family carers are a vital part of the health service in this country and they are not recognised or respected for the work they do. We all know from experience that the healthcare service provided by the HSE is in crisis. The home care service across the country cannot get staff and we are in a situation where thousands of people have been allocated home care hours by the HSE but they are not receiving it because there is simply no staff to provide the care. There is little effort being made to recruit that staff in my experience.

Just imagine if we did not have the countless number of people - mainly women - who are providing the care to family, friends and neighbours. The HSE would collapse altogether. Yet, these family carers have to struggle from week to week because the Government refuses to recognise the work they do and pay them for the vital service they provide. There are many people providing care for loved ones who are not receiving any payment, and they are doing this work seven days a week with no respite or no possibility of respite. If they have accumulated money or assets over the years that puts them outside the threshold for the means test, they simply get nothing. When they look at what they should be entitled to, the Government's answer to them is: "You are doing a great job, providing great care and saving the State millions but we are not going to give you anything. You should spend your own money. You should sell your assets and live off it." What is that? Is that respect for carers? I do not think so and nobody thinks so. The Government should abolish the means test for carer's allowance and increase the payment as an absolute priority.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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In the programme for Government, it states that the Government is committed to the abolition of the carer's means test. We in Sinn Féin have been calling for this for a very long time. The Government declares itself to recognise the enormous contribution that family carers make to Irish society, yet applying the means test to careers is an unfair and regressive policy. Over 70% of carers are currently under enormous pressure to provide the most basic things like food and clothing. We are always aware of the enormous bill this State would have to face if these carers decided to withdraw their services. It is quoted at €20 billion. When you compare this figure to what it would cost to abolish the carer's means test, it is pittance.

I had a case in my own constituency of Wexford of a man who ran his own small business, who retired to look after his wife. She has dementia. He was €10 over the threshold. His only hope came from Family Carers Ireland, which provided him with one hour a week for respite. In that precious hour, he did his weekly shopping and his banking business. I know another woman who looked after elderly mother but she had to take up cleaning jobs to get by. She is totally exhausted by the end of the week as she looks after a young family as well. Surely these citizens deserve better?

There are 611,000 family carers in the State, 16,000 of them in my own County Wexford. They are the unseen and often forgotten about workforce. This State would fold in the morning if they decided to quit. Very often, these carers must leave their jobs to look after their loved ones who are sick, who have a disability or who are stroke victims, leaving them financially worse off. Some must take up part-time jobs while juggling their hours to fit around their caring duties, with no hope of respite. The fact is that carers fall far short of the established minimum standard-of-living income.

It is time to abolish the carer's allowance means test. We have to look after the people who look after our sick, elderly and people with disabilities. They have sacrificed their own careers, social lives and hobbies and often face long bouts of loneliness. I thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion forward at this crucial time ahead of the budget next week.

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I welcome this motion brought forward by the Social Democrats. It follows motions put before this House before. The Labour Party has raised this numerous times, particularly for young carers who are really discriminated against. If I may reach back into the annals, there was a Deputy, Willie Penrose, who raised this matter here for at least a decade if not longer. He argued that in real terms this was self-financing because of the fact that people were kept out of acute healthcare settings.

I believe the Minister is committed to getting rid of this. The differential relates to the timelines for doing it. While the Minister will, in fairness, increase income disregards and all of that, he needs to commit to this House how long it will be before he fully gets rid of it. He has hinted at it previously. Will he be brave enough to do it in this budget? It sounds like he will not. Will he brave enough to do it in the following year's budget, or predict if he will be able to do it? He might outline to us what he intends to do.

We all know - it has been said often in this House - the role that carers play and how critical it is. I am the same. I see it every day all around me, where I live, everywhere. Across the country we have so many people who provide care. What we are not saying is that we are trading on their love for their family members. We are trading on it. Regardless of whether they are getting paid or getting an income for what they do - "pay" is not the right phrase - they are going to do it one way or another because they love the people they are caring for. We are really taking them for granted. There are young people who sacrifice years of their lives, careers, education, social lives and relationships because we, as a State, are taking them for granted. It is not just a case of providing a form of income for the work they do and giving them dignity. It is also about giving them options in life. We are taking away more than just an acknowledgement that they deserve an income.

For many families, anytime there is a change of circumstance within the household - a promotion, an additional payment, someone turning 18 or returning from college and starting work - there is huge concern and anxiety. A whole range of other things can happen across a household and the means assessment starts all over again. This worry and concern is something that we really have to be cognisant of.

The bottom line is that Willie Penrose was right when he said that the amount of money we save as a State because people do not end up in healthcare settings, particularly acute settings, is ginormous. It is huge and unquantifiable. That is the quid pro quo for getting rid of the means test on carers. The people who perform this duty - it is a duty - are saving the State so much. Getting rid of the means test on carers is a quid pro quo for that work. To show that we support them, it is our duty as legislators to ensure this happens and I encourage the Minister to do so.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I too thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward this motion. According to Family Carers Ireland's State of Caring report, which was published last year, 69% of carers report that they find it difficult to make ends meet. Some 29% of those struggling financially are cutting back on essentials such as food and heat, the cost of which has gone through the roof in recent years. Some 23% missed a mortgage or rent payment in the previous year. Some 71% of carers provide care for over 120 hours a week.

The means test for carer's allowance is outdated. It is also deeply gendered because the majority of carers are women. My mother is a carer to my 89-year-old grandfather. She has had to step out of the workforce and does not qualify for carer's allowance under the income disregards that are there for her and my father.

Family carers save the Government approximately €20 billion each year and yet they are penalised if their family income is too high. The means test actively discourages a family from trying to increase its income. If a person works hard and wants to provide more for their family, if they earn too much they will lose some or all of their carer's allowance. This really disincentivises people from going out to work. In a country with full employment and skills shortages left, right and centre, we need to actively encourage and support people to enter and stay in the workforce. We should not be penalising them by reducing their benefits.

Carers make an enormous contribution to this country. At best, they are invisible; at worst, they are actively ignored. Applying for carer's allowance, as all of us as Deputies know from dealing with our constituents, is a very intrusive experience. People have to explain in incredible detail the level of care they provide. Frankly, it is ridiculous. A constituent said to me recently that carers are forced to jump through endless hoops to justify the work they do. To refuse them carer's allowance, or to offer them a reduced payment due to their income, is an insult.

I welcome the fact that the Minister is looking at increasing the income disregard, which has been increased previously. I really welcome the commitment in the programme for Government to get rid of it, but we need to see a timeline for this. My concern is that this commitment is one of those things that could get pushed and pushed and will eventually fall off the agenda.

Eoghan Kenny (Cork North-Central, Labour)
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I also thank the Social Democrats for bringing this motion forward. I do not doubt the Minister's bona fides on this matter. He is a good man. I am well aware that it is more than likely there are people coming into his constituency office and applying for carer's allowance. I do not doubt that. At the same time, people - women are predominantly the carers in this country - are feeling significant pressure. They are finding it extremely difficult to care for loved ones in their households when the application for the carer's allowance involves a means test.

Every week my secretary and I find ourselves filling out application forms. As my colleague Deputy Sheehan has said, it is an extremely intrusive application form. People have to go into in-depth detail on the level of care they provide and it is extremely difficult to write down on a piece of paper. We often find that people get extremely emotional when they submit an application form. It is difficult for public representatives when people come into their constituency offices in extremely emotional states.

I welcome the fact that the income thresholds are increasing. However, the Minister needs to fulfil his duty to abolish the means test for carer's allowance over the lifetime of this Government. We need a timeframe on that. Carers across this country, who are predominantly women, need the security of understanding that their household means will not stop them from having their own income for providing care for a loved one. It would be completely wrong in any sense or form if this were to happen. I ask the Minister and his Department to give us a timeline on what is going to happen in relation to the abolition of the means test for carer's allowance.

Will it be this year, next year or the last year of this Thirty-Fourth Dáil? We are unaware.

I have significant issues in relation to children with special educational needs. Parents across the country who are caring for children with additional needs provide a deep understanding of what children with such needs are facing. They should not be put up against the barrier of a means test for caring for their children 24-7.

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity)
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I thank the Social Democrats for introducing this motion. I have lost count of the number of times we have debated this matter in the Dáil. I welcome that there is a commitment in the programme for Government to get rid of the means test, but I will not be surprised if we end up going into the next general election with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael promising to get rid of it. The failure to provide a timeline is extremely concerning and suggests this is one of these promises that will not be met and many more debates like this will be required to keep the pressure up.

We in People Before Profit are against all means testing of social welfare payments. We believe in universal benefits. If you have a child, you get child benefit. If you lose your job, you get jobseeker’s benefit. In the same way, if you are a carer you should get carer’s allowance. It is as simple as that. There should be no intrusive questions asked about whether you are in a relationship or how much your partner earns. That is irrelevant. It is also deeply sexist, as the majority of family carers are women.

We need to get away from the approach that underlies this, which is about putting responsibility for care onto families. It is very convenient for the State because it saves it about €20 billion per year, but instead of privatising care or expecting families to do the work for free or at a very low cost, the State needs to step up and properly resource care. It needs to fully fund respite and care services rather than expecting charities to raise funds all the time to keep the doors open. It is especially important for older carers, like Tony and Susan Murray, who are caring full-time into their 70s and 80s because of a lack of Government services. Tony told RTÉ that "we have this kind of playing around with rights - there are no rights ... the fact is Aoife [who is their daughter] needs care and needs service and it’s going to cost".

Our alternative budget, which is being launched tomorrow, would immediately abolish the means test for carer’s allowance, disability allowance, the blind pension and the invalidity pension. We would also increase the basic rate of carer’s allowance by €90 to €350 a week. At the moment it is €260. You jump through all the hoops, you fill out a 28-page application form and your reward at the end of that is a measly €7.43 an hour. That calculation is based on working 35 hours a week as a carer. As we all know, many carers are working much more hours than that, meaning they are being paid even less than €7.43 an hour. This is completely unacceptable. It shows a continued lack of respect for carers from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry group. As long as there is a means test for carer’s allowance and an income disregard, there will be an official State disregard for carers and the people they care for. Carers have had enough. It is clear. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael need to stop paying lip service to carers, put their money where their mouths are and abolish the means test for carer’s allowance. They could do it in next week’s budget.

Charles Ward (Donegal, 100% Redress Party)
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Over 10,000 unpaid carers in Donegal are awaiting next week’s budget in the hope they will finally receive long overdue recognition for the difficult and important work they do every single day. The lack of respect for people who provide an essential service and save the State over €20 billion a year is staggering. Most of us, in our lifetime, will either become carers or be cared for. This is a reality we do not realise until we are faced with the unrelenting responsibility of becoming a carer.

Nobody expects to become a family carer. Sometimes it happens overnight and sometimes it happens over time. As a family carer, your time is no longer your own and you no longer have the freedom or flexibility to go where you like when you like. Caring is not just a daily duty but an ever-present weight that is on your mind. As you are caring in the physical sense, it is not a job for you as a family carer. You are looking after someone you love and you see the decline in your health. That love and care should not be exploited, as it has been for years. This was a burden that was never openly discussed, but always expected to be carried by women and is all too often carried by them. It is called a family issue and kept behind closed doors where women will give up everything to stay and look after a relative. It is just a ridiculous situation they find themselves in, in this day and age. They have no money because they are staying at home to look after somebody when they should be adequately rewarded for this. We fail as a State to recognise what they have given to us. This has been going on for generations and now it is expected. That is wrong and it is exploitation of the highest order.

The carer's allowance as it stands is extremely outdated and gender-biased. The Government has the opportunity to address this in its budget next week. It has the opportunity to abolish the means test and pay carers for what they do. I am urging the Government to join us in supporting this motion and show carers they are valued. Since 2011, there has been an increase of 60% in the number of people who need care. The people looking after them are doing an average of over 80 hours a week. They are saving the State billions of euro but we cannot recognise the people who are providing this. We need to address this before people are left behind without any support. What kind of message is that sending out to carers in this day and age?

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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The acid test of the bona fides of this Government on carers and caring is the immediate abolition of the means test for the carer's allowance. This has been the demand of carers and Family Carers Ireland for years and was promised by all political parties during the course of the last general election. It was understood by the public that the means test would be abolished within the first 100 days of this Government, but of course we are still waiting. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael misled the public again. The Minister should announce the abolition immediately and should take the opportunity of next week’s budget to do that.

Some 500,000 carers, including 67,000 young carers, are doing 19 million hours of unpaid care a week, thereby saving the State about €20 billion a year. Family Carers Ireland say:

Despite being described as the backbone of Ireland’s health and social care system, Family carers continue to shoulder the consequences of underinvestment in home care supports, outdated policies, eligibility criteria that no longer reflect the realities of modern caring ...

Surveys show that 69% of carers struggle to make ends meet, with 29% having to cut back on food and heat and 23% missing a rent or mortgage payment. Research by the Vincentian Partnership in April 2022, before the cost-of-living crisis, showed that income supports for carers were inadequate and caring households incurred additional weekly expenditure of €244 per week. This effectively wiped out the carer's allowance completely, meaning people were effectively caring for free. Caring is work and should be paid accordingly. Respite is another issue and three out of four carers never receive it. That is leading to a situation where carers become ill and those they care for end up being admitted to hospitals.

The budget next week must do three things. It must abolish the means test for the carer's allowance, it must substantially increase the carer's allowance payment and it must provide targeted supports for families who are caring for persons with complex needs. Last week, I referenced Alex, a 14-year-old boy who is being cared for at home in his bedroom, which is effectively an intensive care unit, with the support of two carers 24 hours a day. This family is under severe general and financial pressure and was recently threatened with electricity disconnection. This week they were refused the fuel allowance on a technicality. This is absolutely shocking and this Government must do better.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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On 21 May this year, Independent Ireland put forward a motion, part of which called for the abolish the means test for carers. The Government said it would not oppose the motion. Budget 2026 is here next week so let us see if the Government puts its money where its mouth is. Family carers save the Irish State over €20 billion every year by providing 19 million hours of unpaid care each week. That is not just a contribution; it is a cornerstone of our health and social care system. These carers are keeping loved ones at home, out of hospitals and nursing homes and giving them dignity and quality of life yet many are denied carer's allowance simply because their spouse earns just over the threshold. That is not support; it is punishment.

We are facing a serious shortage of nursing home beds. In Bantry alone, 17 beds remain closed in Aperee Living Nursing Home - an issue I brought up with the Minister but he did not come back to me - due to delays in HIQA paperwork, despite this home being fully refurbished and passed by the fire officer. Every week, my office hears from families desperately trying to find a bed for loved ones, whether it is in that nursing home, in a community hospital or wherever. It is getting worse and worse. The people on the ground are telling me it is a crisis situation. Do not bother turning to home help. Mother of Jesus, the Government has made a right hames of that anyway. You will get a simple answer: there is no home help available. If you meet the home help people, they say they will do the extra hours but they will not be given them. There is a right cock-up there. It needs to split clean down and started right up from the ground again.

Since 2024, across Cork and Kerry over 11% of public nursing home beds are currently closed due to staffing shortages, refurbishment delays and regulatory bottlenecks. This is happening while families are being forced to look far outside their communities for care. I hold clinics every Saturday across west Cork and I hear the same story every week. A constituent caring full-time for a loved one is unable to work yet is denied support because of household income. These carers are doing full-time work, often more than 35 hours a week - often a hell of a lot more - and still get nothing. It is not good enough; not in 2025. Let us look at the facts. Some 611,828 people aged 15 plus are providing unpaid care; 67,000 children aged ten to 17 are also carers; 69% of carers find it hard to make ends meet; 48% report severe loneliness; 41% have a long-term health condition themselves; and 72% have never received any respite. These are the people who are holding up our care system and yet they are being left behind. The Government has increased income disregards but that still leaves thousands excluded. We, in Independent Ireland, are fully supportive of the complete abolition of the means test. That is what carers need. That is what carers demand. Life is hard for those who need care but it is also hard for those carers. Many get no break, no support and no recognition. The very least we can do is ensure they receive a payment, regardless of household income.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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This time last year, Aontú proposed a motion in this Chamber seeking the ending of the means test for the carer's allowance. That motion was co-signed by Seán Canney and Noel Grealish who are now junior Ministers in this Government and it had a timeframe of 2027 for the complete abolition of the means test. It is very clear that there is absolutely no will in the Government to abolish the means test by 2027, which is shocking. This particular motion had the will of the Chamber here. The big problem I have with the Government at the moment is that it treats this payment as if it is social welfare. It is not social welfare. Care work is some of most essential work that happens in Irish society. The idea that it is being treated in the same manner as social welfare is absolutely wrong. It is often done out of love but it is tough work. It is long hours and it often means significant sacrifice. I am talking about sacrifice in terms of income as well; income that would been earned if that individual was in another job. It is also work that is predominately done by women therefore it also has a significant impact on women throughout the country and their incomes. If we want to know what this Government values, just follow where the money goes. In all forms of care, the Government does not value care. Whether it is childcare, care for people in nursing homes or children in State care, these are many of the jobs that are paid the least of all the different jobs that exist in this country. There is also a fool's economy here in relation to this. If the Government does not fund carers, cares do not do the work they do and if the State has to step in and fill that gap, it will cost the State billions of euro. Indeed, it is estimated that the whole value of care that carers are providing at the moment is worth about €20 billion. Therefore, it is does not make sense that the Government is not focusing funding in this space as it saves the Government significant money.

I wish to mention a reply to a parliamentary question we got back over the last few days. Incredibly, 37% of carers who applied for carer's allowance last year were refused. That is an incredibly high figure. Nearly 40% of the applicants are being failed on an annual basis. The truth of the matter is that it looks like the Government is going to fail more applicants this year than it did last year. The Government talks about the fact that it has improved the income disregard in the last 12 months, but the income disregard change is actually having no effect on the number of people who are being failed in their application for carer's allowance. Unless the Government gets real in this, it is going to condemn tens of thousands of people to lower incomes, poverty and to not being recognised for they are doing. That is wrong.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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Independent Ireland has looked for the means test to be abolished. It is not about the means test; it is about care. If we are practical about it, an awful lot of people could be outside the threshold because they may have been left something by a loved one or their partner might be working two jobs to try to put food on the table and it puts them outside the means test threshold. If we look at areas where we have no home help and where we cannot get care for people in this country, the Government has put an obstacle in the way of a means test. It is not about means; it is about the care. If the Government looked at what it would cost the other sectors to provide the same care and put that into funds, it would not be able to provide it anywhere. Why is the Government putting an obstacle in the way for care? Talking about home help, it cannot be got. Why? Again, people are afraid of being targeted. I have people in my office day on day, wanting to care for people who the Government cannot allow for. They are willing to do it but they are saying their family will be affected if they do it because it is means tested. We have inflation, we have things going double the cost in this country and people are trying to live. They also want to care but the means test is what is stopping this. It is mean of the Government not to allow care. Independent Ireland is asking the Government to scrap the means test and to look at the care and the benefit of looking after people in their own homes. To wrap this up, it is mean for the Government not to allow care when it looks at it from a financial point of view. It is about the care, not the means.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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I am disappointed to see that the senior Minister has left the House. Nobody ever gets rich from social welfare. Nobody ever makes a profit from social welfare. We can put that idea to rest in this House and put it on the record. When it comes to carer's allowance, €20 billion is being saved by the State from people caring. We have application forms as long as my arm in which people are meant to give every detail and 37% of those are turned down. Then there is the appeals process. God knows, surely people have enough on their plate when they are caring for their husbands, mothers and their children without having to go through this entire rigmarole about how many times they feed them, dress them, shower them and take them to the toilet. That is the type of intrusive information that people in the Department of Social Protection are looking for. It has been stated well in this House what happens when you become a carer. Many times, when it is dementia-related, not only does the world become very small for the person who has the dementia but also for that carer. Many of those, because of a private pension, an income, a piece of land or a house they have inherited, do not qualify. They cannot get the respite, the carer's allowance and other supports and services around that. That is unfair. It is wrong. Who is caring for the carer? The State certainly is not. They cannot access those extra services that could be made available to them. I have a constituent who drives from Mallow to Blarney Street every day. She cannot get carer's allowance for her father because of her husband's earnings. No other social welfare is related to your partner, your husband or your boyfriend's earnings. No other document is as intrusive as the application form needed to receive carer's allowance.

Women - mothers, daughters and sisters - are the majority of carers. I wonder whether there is discrimination in this regard. That should be tested.

Gillian Toole (Meath East, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I thank all the family and young carers who carry out their tasks on a daily basis and save the State an absolute fortune. I thank the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, the Parliamentary Budget Office and my predecessors in the regional group, particularly Denis Naughten, who did substantial work on this issue and contributed to the position we are in today.

To restore a little balance, and it is vindicated to some extent by Family Carers Ireland in its budget 2026 proposal document, we have, since 3 July, met the single carer's allowance payment of €625 and the couples payment of €1,250, with the previous and current programme for Government committing to abolish the means test by 2027. As someone who worked in healthcare, I would crunch the numbers and say, "Yes, it possibly could be done away with". The upper-level cost would be €459 million, which possibly could be done in one budget. That sum could be taken from the HSE, transport, social welfare, etc. However, the practicalities of doing that render it impossible. There are system changes to be invoked and perhaps even a culture change. There is the accountability, efficiency and productivity aspect, including changing work practices at the back end of all this, to make sure, as speakers have noted, that payments are made on time and the reject percentage is reduced.

Apart from crunching the numbers and modelling, we have to prioritise the dignity and respect that should be afforded to people in caring roles. Ultimately, the improved well-being of the State depends on fostering, valuing and nurturing a caring and compassionate society. It should not be entirely about the monetary aspect but that part is moving in the right direction. It is just not practical to do it all in one fell swoop.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to have an opportunity to debate this issue. I thank the Social Democrats for putting the motion before the House. It certainly is very timely with the budget happening next week. I have been and am appealing to the Government to get rid of the means test for people who are caring for loved ones. We are talking about human beings. When people become carers, they must, in many instances, live the other person's life. Whether someone has Alzheimer's disease, a disability or whatever else, their carer has to work around them to make sure they are looked after and treated as humans and that their daily and hourly needs are met. It is a fierce responsibility.

It is not fair to deny people carer's allowance just because their partner or some other person in the house is earning money, to which the carer may have no access. A promise was made to get rid of the means test during the lifetime of the Government. That suggests the cap will be increased year by year over four or five years. I ask that the Government go further at the start than raising it by just one fifth. It should do more because this is an essential support for carers, who do massive work. Many speakers have noted that carers around the country are saving the State €20 billion.

During the summer, I never had so many people coming to me wanting a few days off and to put the person they are caring for into some respite place. It is impossible to get a respite bed in Kerry for anyone who wants to go away for a week. One woman who looks after her mother said to me, "Danny, I do not mind too much myself but I want to go on holiday for a week with my little boy, who is more attached to me than to his father". She has been minding her mother continuously for five years. Can the Minister of State imagine that? She has been continuously seeing to the daily and hourly needs of her mother and she could not go away for one week. It was absolutely savage.

There are no respite beds. Taking the area from Mick the Bridges, where drivers turn off the N22 for Kilgarvan, and all that territory down through Kilgarvan, Kenmare, Sneem, Castlecove and back into Caherdaniel, there is only one respite bed in Kenmare hospital serving that area. People are supposed to get four weeks of respite in a year but there is no way for that to happen. They only get one week and the bed will have to be booked now if they want it in the middle of summer next year. Can the Minister of State imagine that? People must book a respite bed a year head in Killarney, Kenmare, Listowel and Cahersiveen community hospitals. They are being treated terribly and it is not fair. Will the Minister of State look into this? The beds are there but the staff are not. That is what needs to be addressed. I am very hurt about it when I see that a young girl with a family and an autistic little boy cannot go away for just seven days for a bit of a holiday. I have spoken to another woman in Killarney who has been minding her mother-in-law, who needs an awful lot of care and attention, for many years. She could not get a respite bed anywhere. I do not know how she managed in the finish but she was crying to me on the phone for days.

What is happening in Kerry is a terrible situation. We have been let down very badly. We do not know when the new community hospital is opening. We have been asking about it but the opening has been put back. There are other plans for the old district hospital and for the grounds of St. Finian's. We do not have the primary care unit in Killarney we have been waiting on for so many years.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Means-testing for the carer's allowance is not fair on either carers or patients. It could end up costing the State hundreds of millions of euro. The carer's allowance is a weekly social welfare payment to people who care for someone because of their age, disability or illness, including mental ill-health, for at least 35 hours per week over five to seven days. Personal savings should have no impact on whether people qualify for the allowance. Giving of their time to care for someone who is ill takes a large burden off the State and saves it large sums of money annually.

I have been campaigning for years for the removal of the means test, which is counterproductive to the State, to carers and to patients, who are the most important consideration in this. We have more people than ever who qualify as carers by way of assisting on a daily basis in the healthcare of our sick and elderly. We should not be placing obstacles in the way of their receiving the carer's allowance. Otherwise, the State will need to provide the staff, facilities, wages, etc. at an enormous cost.

We have a huge issue with respite provision in County Kerry. I have dealt with many families who have not received a break in six or seven months. I was informed very recently that St. Mary of the Angels in Beaufort is to be sold. It is a phenomenal facility in the heart of the county catering now for young adults - originally, it was children - with profound disabilities.

We also have St. Francis Special School there, which is another amazing facility. I cannot understand or accept that it would be sold off. The land was originally donated by the Doyle family of Beaufort for the benefit of children with profound disabilities and now it is being off-loaded by St. John of God Community Services. I plead with the Minister and everyone involved-----

Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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-----who is in a position of power to address this issue and reverse what they are trying to do. Otherwise, we will be looking for more carers for these people. That is the point I am trying to make.

Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy's time is up.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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This is a facility that the people of Kerry fundraised for, which was given free of charge. It should continue to be used for the purpose for which it was originally given to the people of Kerry by the Doyle family.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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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.

Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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I thank my party colleague Deputy Quaide for bringing forward this motion. As a member of the Social Democrats, I am very proud to put it forward. I realise that the issue has been debated many times in the House, but we have a clear commitment from the Government to abolish the means test and we have a clear rationale for how to do that, yet the Government chooses to continue to hedge and dodge what it has to do.

We have heard a lot of detail today, but I want to zoom out for a moment and talk about care more broadly, mar beidh cúram ag teastáil uainn uilig ag pointe amháin nó pointe eile. We all receive care over the course of our lifetime. Many of us will give care as well. It is really important to start from that point, because in his opening statement, the Minister, Deputy Calleary, said: "In short, we agree ... that the means test should be abolished. There is nothing between us on that." I will speak a little to the differences that we do have in both the how and the why.

I am not going to go over the figures Deputy Cian O'Callaghan already put forward to show how we can do this. The Government can do this in one swoop with this budget. It can abolish the means test for carers. It can broaden the tax base. It can look at the other ways in which we can fund this, but instead this morning we get from the Minister, Deputy Calleary, and the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, essentially a form of whataboutery. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, implied that by introducing this we would then have to penalise other groups in society, such as lone parents and people with disabilities.

That is not what we are suggesting. The Social Democrats do not suggest that. We are putting forward a motion that offers a way for the Government to do this overnight. That "how" is one of the big gulfs between us and the Government, but the wider one is the "why" of this. It is the motivation. In his opening comments, the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, acknowledged the great work being done by carers.

I do not doubt the Minister of State means that, but I think he comes at it with a very different world view to us. I argue there are ways in which the Government views care which holds on to the very paternalistic, very charitable model of care and disability we have in this society. What he is seeing from us, all across the Opposition benches, is the opposite. My colleagues have spoken about the professional care that is delivered in the homes. The Government must start to recognise that is what it is and reassess the entire relationship this State has with care and start recognising it for what it is: professional care that is provided in the homes of many people across this country. The one stark way one can tell the difference is that those families that have means pay for carers. That is the difference. It is the families that cannot afford to that have to put in the hours themselves and care for people. Until the Government starts to recognise that fundamental "why" - why we need to reward carers in a professional way - we will never meet across that gulf.

Holly Cairns (Cork South-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Deputy Quaide for all his hard work on this motion. There should be no need for this debate. We are all in agreement that the means test for carers needs to be abolished, so the question is: why do we not just do it now? It is extremely insulting to reduce the work of carers down to numbers on a spreadsheet. It is the only type of work that is means tested like this. Carers who are slightly above income thresholds are often denied any support. People who have carer's allowance live in fear of it being taken away. The process is draining, it is stressful and it is bureaucratic to the extent that some people do not even bother to apply for it.

Of course, to say that this disproportionately impacts women is an understatement . According to the report from the Citizens' Assembly on gender equality, women make up 98% of full-time carers. We are all well aware that linking an entitlement like that to partners' incomes only entrenches economic dependency. The result is far too many women are highly dependent on the income of their partner, exposing them to the very real risk of financial abuse. The impact the means test has on carers is immeasurable, it is exhausting, and it is wrong.

Katie Healy Nolan lives in Cork. She is a carer for her daughter, Penelope, who has a life-limiting illness. On Monday, she told me that caring for her daughter, Penelope, is, "an absolute honour and the most fulfilling role I will ever hold, but I, like so many other unpaid carers feel like we are being punished for caring for our loved ones". Due to means testing, Katie and her family are not eligible for supports. Any savings they had are long gone and recently they had to crowdfund for a downstairs bedroom for Penelope ahead of her scoliosis surgery in February. That is the reality of the means tested system. We hear time and again how the Government values carers, but where on Earth is the evidence of that?

It is important to say the Government is paying lip service to a rights-based approach to disability, particularly in relation to the right to independent living. Disabled people should have a choice on how they live their lives, but that choice is not there at the moment because personal assistance hours and so many other essential supports are threadbare. Under a rights-based approach, family care would be a choice. In Ireland, most of the time it is not.

We have to support carers with more than words. We will not improve the life of carers by tinkering around the edges; by increasing an income threshold. Carers are saving the State €20 billion a year. It would cost a fraction of that, €375 million to remove the means test. That is something the Social Democrats have allowed for in our alternative budget. It is not too late for the Government to do the same.

Liam Quaide (Cork East, Social Democrats)
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I thank all my colleagues who supported our motion. The Minister, Deputy Calleary, emphasised in his response to the motion that he will not be opposing it and that there is "nothing between us", regarding the means test for carer's allowance. Yet, there is a major difference between abolishing the means test for carer's allowance in budget 2026 and abolishing it in budget 2030. Within that gulf between nice words and concrete actions are the experiences of carers who have had to leave their careers to look after a family member who requires full-time care and support and who are not even granted a modest payment to provide them with a modicum of financial security because their savings or their spouse’s income makes them ineligible. For carers locked out of this basic financial support, applying for carer's allowance and being rejected is a demeaning, gruelling process. The Government talks about being unable to abolish the means test in budget 2026 with a sense of inevitability, almost as if it is a law of nature that a proposal of this kind is fanciful or naive. Dragging out this decision over a five-year term is not inevitable; it is a political choice. The Government can ask banks that are highly profitable and that were bailed out by the State during the financial crash to pay more, or it can continue leaning on carers for their thankless, intruding into their finances and devaluing their contribution to society.

I want to share the words of a constituent who wrote to me about her experience. She captures very powerfully the core injustice of the means test for carer’s allowance.

I am a mum to an 8-year-old autistic girl who was diagnosed following a long drawn process and following a complaint having to be lodged to have the assessment of needs carried out for her.

In February 2023 due to lack of services and intervention as well as the demands of trying to navigate having a child with ASD and working full time I ended up suffering from parental burnout and have been out on sick leave due to my emotional and mental health being affected caring full time for my child. People don’t see the sleepless nights. I feel that carers should be recognised for what we do. Carers save the Government millions a year. I feel we are being exploited for our hard work. Carers who don't qualify for the carers allowance as they are over the means threshold are made to feel worthless as they aren't recognised for what we do and have the added stress of having to depend on our partners financially. We also then have the cost-of-living crisis on our hands with the expense of ESB, food, petrol, private therapies, various resource to help with regulating etc. I am lucky in one way as my husband has full time employment but due to his work, we are over the threshold for me to qualify for carers. I feel it is extremely unfair that my husband’s earnings have to be taken into account given that I am at home 24/7 with my daughter currently as we also do not have an appropriate school placement either. Having no financial independence or stability on top of lack of supports, no school placement as well as trying to navigate my child’s anxiety and other issues has become such a worry and has had a detrimental impact on my mental and emotional well-being. I would love to work part-time if not full time again at some stage but given the lack of supports, no school placement and my daughter’s heightened anxiety I am not in a position to and as a result I have to choose but to be a full-time carer, advocate, OT, SLT, teacher, psychologist etc. The Government needs to wake up and look after carers who are looking after their vulnerable citizens.

There is a choice to make in next week’s budget. Political decisions are not inevitable and the Government can continue treating carers as charity cases who are a burden on the State or, alternatively, as the essential backbone they are to our society and care system.