Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and thank Senator Fiona O'Loughlin for looking after us today and for driving forward this motion. I am on the working group and I have been involved in this, so I know the work that has gone into it.

I was expecting somebody from the Department of Health today, not that I am not delighted to see the Minister of State, as always. When I was setting out the words that I wanted to say, they really were with health in mind. Coming up to the budget, the carer’s allowance is top of my mind. I and others in the Seanad would share the view that eligibility for carer’s allowance should not be primarily based on means and should not be means tested. It should be based on the needs of the person being cared for and the scale and value of the work that goes into that.

Whatever Family Carers Ireland asks for in the budget, I cannot see anybody disagreeing with it or not supporting it but, at the same time, it is an outdated payment. It was first introduced in 1990 as an income support for people living with and caring for a relevant pensioner and it now refers to caring for someone with an illness, a disability or because of age. When we read about the payment, it nearly sounds transitional or temporary, and it does not reflect the lifelong care and commitment that many carers provide. We need to value and recognise them. It is part of their identity. It is their role in society and they deserve to be visible. I am thinking of the fact that 77% of carers are women and thinking of all of the mothers who have given up their careers and paid jobs to take on the role of caring. They forgo participation in the workplace for a different role that is just as, if not more, important. However, they give up their career aspirations and not only are they at a financial loss, but they become financially dependent. The carer’s payment only goes so far.

As we have seen from the research, caring for a child with a profound intellectual disability is an average weekly additional cost to a household of €244. We are talking about the cost to the State of care but there is the value that these carers are giving to the State in fulfilling those duties. It is also in fighting for their children because not only do they take on a caring role, but, as the Minister of State and I know, they are fighting for services that they desperately need. It is exhausting work. They become advocates. They have nothing but my admiration but these women are invisible. It is not right.

We reduce that recognition to people who have a gross household income of €41,500. When the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, was in the House before the summer, she rightly pointed out that the role of the social welfare system is to provide a basic level of income. The Minister stated:

If we are to pay carers properly for the huge work they do, the Department of Health has a role here. The reality is that if families' carers were not doing the work, a lot of these people would be in State care. No matter where I draw the line in terms of the means test, there will always be some people who will fall down the other side and will not qualify. ... I know some of the carers' groups would like to see the means test abolished altogether, but if you go down that road, it will no longer be a social welfare payment. In cases where somebody has to give up their job to care for a person with high dependency who would otherwise be in State care, it is absolutely reasonable that the Department of Health or the HSE would provide a payment once the medical need is satisfied.

Family Carers Ireland has provided us with the figures. To abolish the means test and have eligibility depend on strict medical conditions and the need for full-time care, the Department of Social Protection estimates it would cost €1.2 billion whereas Family Carers Ireland estimates it would be more like €400 million. This is something we need to look at.

The Taoiseach said a couple of years ago that women who left work for caring purposes are one of our biggest untapped resources. These women who are caring are also one of our most undervalued and invisible resources. That needs to change.