Sinéad Gibney (Dublin Rathdown, Social Democrats)
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258. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he would be supportive of budgetary measures to support carers through a basic income scheme for carers, similar to the current basic income for the arts scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38631/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Social Protection provides a comprehensive range of income supports to carers, including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance, and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined expenditure on these payments is estimated at €1.9 billion in 2025.

Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment awarded to those who are caring for people who need full-time care and attention. Like other income supports the payment is intended to provide an income support for people who cannot earn income through employment or other means due to caring responsibilities.

The current maximum weekly rates for Carer’s Allowance are €260 for carers under 66 years of age and €298 for carers aged 66 and over. These rates place Carer’s Allowance among the higher payments within the social welfare system. For comparison the maximum personal weekly rate of Jobseeker’s Allowance ranges from €153.70 to €244, depending on the recipient’s age.

The Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme is not a Social Protection or income support payment. It is a pilot initiative under the remit of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

A proposal to increase the Carer’s Allowance to €325 per week would represent a 25% rise. Such an increase would have significant budgetary implications and would impact other social welfare schemes.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to supports carers. This includes increases in payment rates and improvements to income disregards. In fact, last week, the income disregard for Carer's Allowance increased from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse/partner making the scheme more accessible.

The Programme for Government 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. We have also committed to progressively increasing the rates of payment.

These commitments will be advanced over the life time of the Government and in light of available resources.