Michael Brennan (Progressive Democrats)

I wish to outline some interesting figures. The Central Statistics Office indicates that the total number of carers is 150,000 but the total number caring for more than four hours a day is 49,000. Of these, the number caring for more than ten hours a day is 16,000. While there is the headline figure of 150,000 carers, when one inquires about carers in terms of the number of hours of caring per day, the number caring for a long number of hours is much lower. For example, last year some 24,892 recipients received the carer's allowance. That is the number of carers to which that 150,000 whittled down. I do not expect there would be 150,000 full-time carers if the means test were removed because according to the figures given, that number of carers are not available to do the work.