Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, to the House. It is good to see him again. I thank Senator Seery Kearney and her Fine Gael colleagues for bringing this very important motion to the House today. However, it is beyond time for action to replace words. Government action is urgently needed on the motion before the House today. Last Wednesday, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, of which I am a member, received a presentation from Family Carers Ireland.Currently, there are 500,000 carers in Ireland saving this State an estimated €20 billion each year. Over the past year or more I have followed up on refusals for carer's allowance given the high volume of first-time refusals coming through my own office. In replies to parliamentary questions tabled by the Labour Party over that time, the refusal rate is still running at almost 50%. There were just over 19,000 applications in 2019 with almost 9,000 refusals, and there were 18,700 applications in 2020 with 10,495 of those applications refused. The means test for the carer's allowance has not changed since 2008, some 13 years. The current levels are simply locking out carers throughout this country. A limit of €332 for a single person and €665 for couples is simply antiquated and is not reflective of the amount of care but, most importantly, the cost of care that so many families provide in this State at this time.

Recently, I had one case concerning a lady who was €9 above the means test limit. She had to adapt her house, improve her heating system and increase the amount of food she was purchasing to enable her to take in and look after her mother. This is, of course, before she provides 24-7 care, seven days a week, for her mother. Her husband's gross wages took her out of qualifying for a payment and, unlike even the problematic qualifying criteria surrounding medical cards, her mortgage payment, mortgage protection insurance, house insurance and childcare costs are not taken into account while her husband's travel to work costs still have to be paid as well as these other economic changes that caring for her loved one has brought, as I have already mentioned. She is not alone. The Government cannot continue to expect such families to bail out the responsibility of this State and this Government by not paying those who carry out this care.

In its presentation last week, Family Carers Ireland stated that almost 50% of those who receive the carer's allowance are not on the maximum rate of €219 per week. Unfortunately, I am aware of carers who receive just €10 per week for the 24-7 care they provide. That is simply not good enough. I am sure, like me, many other Members of this House have attended oral social welfare hearings, when we were allowed to do so in a pre-Covid Ireland, where carers were brought to tears telling the story of the medical issues that the person he or she is caring for has and how the situation affects not only that person but also everybody else in the house. In some cases your jaw would drop listening to what care was being provided and the level of medical need. It is unbelievable we put carers through this process. I am sure, again, I am not the only one in this House who has had a social welfare inspector tell me he or she had to bring the person in because that is the system and he or she had to hear that person give his or her story.

Family Carers Ireland has recently stated, like I am sure everybody in this House, that it will always support applicants and that while it is very important to discuss the application and prepare it before it is sent in, we should not be putting carers through this ordeal. They deserve our respect and, more importantly, they need to be paid. Let us start by Government increasing the means test for carers so that lady whom I have mentioned, who has been refused a third time, can receive a payment and the respite grant, or carer's support grant as it is now called.

Another area I would like to touch on and which is mentioned in the motion as one of the income supports is domiciliary care. In particular, I would like to bring up the ridiculous need for children aged 16 who are transferring from domiciliary care to disability allowance to go through the amount of paperwork needed to obtain the new payment, in this case the disability allowance. I am aware of a number of parents who, when they questioned this, were told by the Department they needed to check if there were any changes in means for the child to secure the payment. Why can the system not be streamlined and, like a renewal for a medical card, simply a one-page document be sent to the parent or guardian of the child asking if there have been any changes, to tick a box if not, to sign it and reduce this burden on those who need our help the most? There is one thing that is for sure and that is that, for the majority of these children who need a disability allowance from 16 on, their medical conditions will be with them for life and, unfortunately, that will never change. Their parents and guardians cannot understand why they are put through this process of filling in such a lengthy form, gathering further supporting medical documentation when they know their loved ones will never recover and will need considerable supports for the rest of their lives. Let us treat these children and those caring for them with the respect and dignity they deserve. Let us bring in a system that recognises the care that is already in place and will be for a lifetime and reduce the burden with the transfer of this payment.

Once again, I thank my Fine Gael colleagues and group who brought up this very important matter. Let us make the system fair for those who need care and those providing care, who by doing so save this Government €20 billion each year.Payments that would go some way to helping so many of them with the additional time and costs that they provide for this State, at this time, must be made more easier.