Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Government acknowledges the crucial role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role.  This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy.

The main income supports to carers provided by my Department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and the Carer’s Support Grant.  The projected expenditure on Carer’s Allowance in 2020 is approximately €919 million.  Combined spending on all payments to carers in 2020 is expected to exceed €1.3 billion. 

I do not plan to carry out a review of the Carer's Allowance payment at this time.  As part of the debate on the Social Welfare, Pensions and Civil Registration Bill 2018, the then Minister agreed that the Department would carry out a review on the Carer's Allowance payment.  Subsequently a comprehensive policy review of Carer’s Allowance was prepared by my Department and laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 28 August 2019 and is available on the Oireachtas website (here).

In addition, on 15 August 2019 the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform also published a Spending Review of Carer’s Supports, including Carer's Allowance.  Among its key findings was that of the €1.04bn spent on Carer’s Support Programmes in 2018, Carer’s Allowance accounted for 77% of total support spend on carers.

I can assure the Deputy that the Government is very aware of the key role family carers play in society and will continue to keep the range of supports available to carers under review in order to provide support and recognition for carers.

I hope this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.