Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for the opportunity to communicate on this issue here. As we approach the budget, and I welcome the fact that the Minister is in the House because I know he will be on the same page as me, I believe it will be a budget for our carers. Family carers have consistently lost allowances, benefits and supports over the past four years, as well as services on the ground. As we all know, Irish people place a high value on family in terms of looking after their elderly parents or their daughters, sons, sisters or brothers with a serious long-term illness or disability. These carers deserve a budget that will offer them stability, security and dignity.

The Government views carers as a financial burden as opposed to valuable, hard-working citizens who are doing vital and difficult work in saving the State millions of euro. If Senator van Turnhout was caring for a relative, she would be getting €204 a week because she is under 66 years of age. If Senator Quinn, who I think is over 66 - he is 67 - was looking after an elder relative he would be getting €239 per week. What amounts of money are those for somebody who is trying to manage a household and work seven days a week under incredible stress? The Minister spoke about people with disabilities, Alzheimer's and other incredibly difficult diseases who need 24-hour care. We have the wonderful fair deal scheme but these carers are saving the State millions of euro. A fair deal arrangement will cost the State €800 to €1,000 a week whereas Senator van Turnhout will cost it €209 a week, but I think Senator van Turnhout, or carers like her, should be getting at least double that amount.

For a wife caring full-time for a husband with Parkinson's disease, the disproportionate 19% cut to the respite care grant in budget 2012 has made her caring role much harder, not easier. For the couple who are caring for a young family and an older mother with poor mobility due to pulmonary disease, the cuts to the housing adaptation grant scheme means they will wait years, not months, for supports to be put in place for a much-needed downstairs bathroom. Those are the basic requirements, and dignity, these people deserve.

To go into a little more detail, the 19% cut to the respite care grant imposed in budget 2012 was deeply unfair and disproportionate to the cuts applied across the general social protection budget in the context of Ireland's economy slowly recovering, with cuts in income tax entering the fiscal discourse and cuts to other social welfare supports being restored in last year's budget. I urge the Minister, as do the members of the Carers Association, to restore the respite care grant to the full €1,700 in budget 2016.

In terms of restoring the household benefits package, the decision to abolish the telephone allowance flies in the face of Government policy to care for people at home. Without a telephone line, lives are put at risk as older people, the sick and the disabled are denied access to alarms or telecare equipment as well as having a direct link to their carers.

Family carers cannot claim relief on medical expenses incurred as a result of their caring roles. Could the Med 1 form through which PAYE workers can claim relief be put in place for carers?

I support Senator Quinn regarding self-employed entrepreneurs. Coming back to the issue of capital gains tax, CGT, for entrepreneurs, I ask the Minster to examine the English CGT system. Currently, CGT is at 33%. All of us here want to encourage young entrepreneurs to start businesses and employ people but if they put together a successful business, employ people, are successful and want to dispose of their businesses and assets in five or six years' time, they will pay 33% CGT. In England, there is a special relief for entrepreneurs which means they pay only 10%.On the subject of capital gains tax, CGT, a person in England with a low income who is lucky enough to have a gain such as an inheritance will have a CGT rate of 18%. If one is a high earner, one's CGT rate will be 28%. I ask the Minister to consider taking away this blanket CGT rate. While I agree it may be fair that people who have lots of properties and never did anything to earn them should pay at a rate of 33%, an entrepreneur who has created wonderful business, stimulated the economy, employed people and has gone through all the pain should have a different system.