Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not propose to accept this amendment. I would like to make the general point that legislation is not the appropriate place for seeking reports. I accept, however, that this is an opportunity for the Senator to raise these matters and discuss them with me. I have made the point about including in primary legislation, particularly legislation as complex as the Social Welfare Acts, commitments to producing reports. I have already committed to initiating a wide-ranging review of means testing in the Department next year. I made that commitment on Second Stage. The review will cover the treatment of income disregards across schemes generally and will, therefore, include the examination of thresholds and their impacts for the carer's allowance. I increased the income thresholds for the carer's allowance last year to €750 per week for a couple. That was welcome because it was the first change in many years. We have a generous income disregard for carers because we also increased the amount of allowable savings to €50,000.

The Senator will appreciate that resources are finite and we try to target them where they are needed most. When we assess means, we assess the means of the entire household because we feel that is the best way of targeting income supports where they are needed most. One is allowed to earn rental income of up to €14,000 per year without any effect to one's carer's allowance or any other means-tested allowance. That applies where a homeowner wishes to rent a room to somebody. It does not affect one's payments. That is useful to people who are able to rent a room in their houses.