Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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903. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she will provide a copy of the findings and costings produced by her Department officials in respect of abolishing the carer’s allowance means test (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1785/25]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The main income supports to carers provided by the Department of Social Protection are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.9 billion in 2025.

The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. There are currently 98,117 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance and expenditure in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion.

The primary objective of the Carer’s Allowance payment is to provide an income support to carers whose earning capacity is substantially reduced as a consequence of their caring responsibilities and in so doing to support the ongoing care of the person or people in respect of whom care is being provided.

In 2024 the Department conservatively estimated that the cost of removing the means test at an additional cost of €600m per annum. This estimate was based on the current 146,046 care recipients of the Carer’s Support Grant only. However, taking account of the number of carers in Census 2022 and extrapolating the potential number of carers in 2024, the additional cost could be up to €2bn per year at average payment rates.

The Government is very aware of the key role that family carers play in Irish society and the challenges they face. The Programme for Government - Securing Ireland's Future - commits to significantly increasing the income disregards for Carer’s Allowance in each Budget with a view to phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government.

I trust that this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.