Noel Coonan (Fine Gael)

The two issues mentioned are important, namely, the carer's allowance and home help, and I would like to link them. The manner in which carers are treated is regrettable given the work they do in keeping patients in their community and the money they save the Government by caring for those people in their homes rather than their occupying valuable bed space in hospitals. We know what it costs to keep a person in hospital and the Minister will inform us of that later. It is a disgrace that a Government that was so flush with cash over the past five years made it so difficult for people to obtain the carer's allowance, and when they did, for the allowance to be paid.