Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for being here to deal with this issue. We made a big leap forward in last week's budget with the raising of the income disregard for carers, both in single situations and in couples. I welcome that and hope to see a continued progression of that over the lifetime of the Government. I am here today to point out what I think is a loophole in the system. I have raised it through parliamentary questions and wanted to give it an airing in this forum to see if there is any resolution for it, especially in the context of the upcoming social welfare Bill. It was brought to my attention by a constituent who is currently facing both a financial and social consequence as a result of being on maternity leave. This individual works part-time and has been a full-time carer since 2022. She has been means tested for receipt of the full-time carer's allowance and is also receiving top-up payments for child dependants, all of which are fully merited. It is good not only that she is in a position to provide that care but also that she is able to maintain employment for the progression of her career. However, being on maternity leave now means that there is a lacuna by virtue of the fact that her so-called maternity benefit is being paid directly to her employer. She is not in receipt of that payment. Further, because she is on maternity benefit, she does qualify for full-time carer's allowance and moves to half-time carer's allowance. Finally, because she has more than one child, she is not awarded the full rate of €289 maternity benefit but is awarded a reduced rate of €244 per week. This means, in effect, that there is a loss of over €200 per week because she is on maternity benefit.

There is space here to ensure fairness. This is a carer who is still fulfilling her full-time care responsibilities, on maternity leave and caring for children, as was recognised by the child dependant payments and the full-time carer's payment that were being paid to her. It is puzzling as to why she is losing money as a result of going on maternity leave and hence losing access to a full-time carer's allowance. It flies in the face of the principles of the social welfare system which, in the main, is very good at ensuring that people are not worse off when they take on care responsibilities. They definitely should not be worse off if they decide to have another child. Effectively, there is a significant hit to this person's income because she is on maternity leave.

I would like us to address this in the context of the upcoming social welfare Bill. We need to ensure that the full rate of maternity benefit is paid regardless of the number of children and that the awarding of the carer's allowance takes account of the fact that, in some instances, as happened to me when I was on paternity leave, the benefit is paid directly to the employer. The employer takes that payment and then pays the resultant fee. Obviously, in the situation of a carer, that is not necessarily like for like because the person would lose half of the carer's allowance payment as a result of being on maternity benefit, despite the fact that the employer is getting the statutory rate.

Compounding this is the fact that a different rate of maternity benefit is being paid to the employer while the employer is still deducting the maternity benefit. I would welcome a discussion on this. It is something that can be remedied through legislation and I will be speaking to the Minister for Social Protection about it. I am interested to hear the Minister of State's thoughts on it and hope we can advance this and address what is a fundamental unfairness in the system.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Moynihan for raising this issue, which I am dealing with on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Calleary. The Government acknowledges the vital role that family carers play in our society and remains fully committed to supporting them in that role. This commitment is reflected in both the programme for Government and the recent budget.

The Department of Social Protection provides a comprehensive range of income supports for family carers, including carer’s allowance, the non-means-tested carer’s benefit, domiciliary care allowance and the carer’s support grant. In 2026 spending on these supports is expected to exceed €2.2 billion, with almost 103,000 carers currently receiving the carer’s allowance payment. Carer’s allowance is the main scheme through which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. It is a means-tested social assistance payment for people on low incomes who are providing full-time care to someone who requires ongoing support due to age, disability, or illness. The person being cared for must require full-time care and attention.

As part of budget 2026 we are increasing the income disregard for a single person by €375 per week to €1,000. That is an increase of 60% and means that a single person who provides full-time care but does some part-time work can earn over €55,000 per year from that work and receive a full carer's payment. In parallel, we are also increasing the income disregard for a couple by 60% or €750 to €2,000 per week. These are the largest ever increases in the carer’s allowance income disregard and will mean that even people with what are considered to be relatively high incomes will qualify for a carer’s payment for the first time. For example, a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €110,000 will still retain the full carer’s allowance payment and even with an income of €138,000 a carer will retain a partial payment. We are also increasing the personal rates of payment for carer’s allowance, maternity benefit and other schemes by €10 from January.

The Irish social welfare system is underpinned by the principle of one person, one payment. Ordinarily, individuals who qualify for more than one social welfare payment receive only the higher payment. However, there are limited exceptions, one of which is the half-rate carer’s allowance. This arrangement allows individuals in receipt of certain social welfare payments, who are also providing full-time care, to retain their main payment and receive a supplementary payment, subject to a means test, up to the value of a half-rate carer’s allowance. In the case outlined by the Deputy, a carer on maternity leave may be eligible to receive both the full weekly rate of maternity benefit at €289 and a half-rate carer’s allowance at €130, which is €419 per week. Therefore, in such circumstances, a carer goes from receiving a payment of €260 per week to €419 per week. This is an increase of €159 per week. Where the maternity benefit recipient has adult or child dependants, she may also qualify for an increase for a qualified adult €162 per week and child support payments of €50 per week for children under 12, or €62 for children aged 12 and over. Maternity benefit is compared to the rate of illness benefit, and the higher of the two is paid. When a carer goes on maternity leave, the Department increases the payment made to that person by paying out both the full rate of maternity benefit along with a half-rate carer’s allowance.

This Government has committed to improving supports for carers and those they care for and the significant changes to the means test for carer’s allowance announced in last week’s budget clearly demonstrate that commitment.

Shane Moynihan (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for the response. I will start by saying that I acknowledge again the huge step forward that we have made in supporting carers, with our long overdue recognition of the role they play in our economy and society by looking after those who need care. However, it is also important to ensure that when we are spending money on supporting carers the income supports are effective, are working and are not causing unintended consequences, which is the case here. While I accept the facts the Minister of State laid out regarding what the individual in this case would receive, I would point out that it does not make allowances for the fact the person is employed and the payment is made directly to the employer. That is the key difference here. It could be addressed by an amendment to the social welfare Act such that a full-time carer's allowance would still apply in such an instance because the person in this case is not receiving the maternity benefit payment and that is being paid to her employer to absorb the cost of the wage. In this case, she works for 18.5 hours per week and the additional payment of the carer's support allowance is part of her usual or normal income alongside her salary for 18.5 hours. The maternity benefit is deducted from the salary for 18.5 hours per week which means that the maternity benefit is not payable to the individual in question. There needs to be a recognition of situations where a person is working the permitted 18.5 hours per week and is already receiving the full rate of carer's allowance. That should carry over to the maternity benefit because in such an instance, the maternity benefit would not be paid directly. It is really important given that we are constantly trying to encourage women to have full participation in the workforce and that they are not penalised for leaving the workforce when they have children. Little, unintended consequences like this in our social welfare system should be addressed. I ask the Minister of State to raise this with the Minister for Social Protection to see if something can be done to address it in the social welfare Bill.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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I thank Deputy Moynihan again for raising this matter. The Government recognises the complexity of caring roles and the reality that many carers continue to provide full-time care while navigating other life events, including maternity leave. As I said in my opening remarks, this Government has committed to improving support for carers and those they care for. The significant changes to the means test for carer's allowance announced in last week's budget clearly demonstrate that commitment. The programme for Government contains a number of commitments to improve the supports available to family carers. These include a commitment to continue to increase the carer's support grant and to progressively increase weekly carer's support payments. It also clearly sets out a timeline which commits to significantly increasing the income disregard for carer's allowance in each budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. We have already made progress in this regard, including in the recent budget. In addition to the changes to the carer's allowance disregard, as part of budget 2026 we are also increasing the rates of maternity benefit and carer's allowance by €10 per week from January. I can assure the Deputy that we will continue to keep the range of income supports available to both carers and those availing of the maternity benefit under review so that the overall objectives of the scheme and the Department are met.

I will bring the very valid issues Deputy Moynihan raised to the attention of the Minister for Social Protection and will ask if they can be included in the forthcoming social welfare Bill. I am sure the Deputy will also raise it with the Minister himself but he will have our support on that.