Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister to the House. Senator McCarthy has outlined a number of individual cases in which people were caught up in the means test arrangements. These reflect a large number of similar cases. I ask the Minister to keep the system under review and take into account a range of issues, including those raised by Senator McCarthy, when carrying out any such review.

I will focus on the means test applied to carers. I take on board the Minister's comments on Second Stage on Tuesday in reply to my request that he consider abolishing this means test. He informed Senators that the cost of such a measure would be approximately €140 million and indicated that he needed to consider whether it was preferable to widen the net or increase payments to carers.

While it is difficult to argue with the Minister in this regard, as Senators are aware, many carers do not qualify for carer's allowance because of the means test. We must recognise the work done by carers and the sacrifices they make. While I recognise it will not be possible to do this immediately, I hope the Minister will consider abolishing the means test before the next budget in order that more carers will be brought into the net and have their work recognised and, more important, to ensure more people will take on the task of caring for elderly relatives.

The Department should not work in isolation but hand in hand with the Department of Health and Children to facilitate older people returning home from hospital. We are all aware of the problems associated with the large number of older people occupying hospital beds. If we managed to encourage and financially reward more people to care for older people at home, we would do a service for many people by freeing up beds and allowing older people to be cared for at home. This would also recognise the work done by carers who are not currently financially rewarded. At the same time, the abolition of the means test would bring other carers into the net. I ask the Minister to consider introducing such a measure in the year ahead or, failing this, to take action to improve the position for more carers.

As I noted on Second Stage, figures provided by the Carers Association indicate that only 24,000 of 150,000 carers receive either carer's benefit or carer's allowance. Clearly, therefore, a large number of carers are not being financially rewarded for their work.