James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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146. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will give a timeline for implementing the Programme for Government commitment to phase out means testing for the carers’ allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33185/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government has clearly set out a timeline which 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.This is a major change to the Carer's Allowance and to the Irish social welfare system generally. It is important that we make progress in a way that is sustainable and which does not unduly limit our scope to support other vulnerable groups in society.The estimated minimum cost of abolishing the means test is about €600 million per annum but that the cost could run to €3 billion per annum depending on inflow of new claimants. Therefore, it is important to manage the changes to the means test in a way that takes account of budgetary resources and balances the achievement of the objective of eliminating the means test with other priorities.It is also important to note that we will continue the process of easing the means test in July, when the weekly income disregard for Carer's Allowance will increase from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner. This amounts to cumulative increases to the disregards of €292.50 and €585.00 respectively, or 88%, since June 2022.The increases in July will mean that a carer in a two-adult household with an income of approximately €69,000 will still retain their full Carers payment and even with an income of €97,000 will retain a partial payment.Finally, it is important to note that my department provides non-means-tested supports to carers including Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the annual Carer’s Support Grant of €2,000 which was recently paid to over 138,000 carers on 5 June.I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.