Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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655. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection his position on introducing a basic Income for carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61043/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Carer's Allowance payment is an income support for carers those who cannot earn an adequate income in the open labour market due to their caring responsibilities. In this regard it forms part of the system of social assistance supports that provide payments based on income need. It is not a payment for caring and the question of a basic income for caring does not fall within my remit.

There are currently 103,696 people in receipt of Carer's Allowance. Expenditure on the scheme this year is estimated to exceed €1.24 billion.

Considerable progress has been made in recent years to support carers, including providing increases in the rates of payment and income disregards.

The current rate for Carer’s Allowance is one the higher rates within the social welfare system. As part of Budget 2026, I announced a further €10 increase in the weekly rate of Carer’s Allowance, bringing the basic rate to €270, or €308 for carers aged 66 and over. Recipients will also receive a Christmas bonus of a double week's payment in December.

Weekly carer income support payment rates have increased by €51 over the past five years. The Programme for Government contains a commitment to progressively increasing weekly carer income support payments.

It is important to note that a 50% increase is applied to the weekly personal rate where care is provided to more than one person. For carers with children the Child Support Payment also applies.

The highest weekly income disregard also applies to the Carer's Allowance payment. At the start of July when the weekly income disregard increased from €450 to €625 for a single person, and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or partner.

As part of Budget 2026, I announced more improvements to the means test that will be introduced next year. For carers who work, the weekly income disregard will be increased by 60% from €625 to €1,000 for a single person, and from €1,250 to €2,000 for carers with a spouse/partner/co-habitant.

Since June 2022, this will amount to cumulative increases to the disregards of €667.50 for a single carer and €1,335 for a carer who is part of couple, or an increase of just over 200%.

These are the largest ever increases in the Carer’s Allowance income disregard and will mean that even people with what are considered to be relatively high incomes will qualify for a carer’s payment for the first time.

The Programme for Government commits to significantly increasing the income disregards with a view to abolishing over the lifetime of this Dáil.

My department also makes a number of non-means-tested income supports to carers including the annual Carer's Support Grant, the monthly Domiciliary Care Allowance payment and the weekly social insurance based Carer's Benefit. All of which have seen increases in rates and or widening of eligibility criteria over the last number of years.

I am satisfied that my department provides a comprehensive suite of income supports to carers and that these apply across a range of income brackets.

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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656. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the position on supporting persons with disabilities who want to work to find and retain employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61044/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is committed to supporting disabled people into secure and sustainable employment. It is critical that the welfare-to-work journey is as smooth as possible for those who want to and are able to work.

As a result of Budget 2026, where people move off Disability Allowance or Blind Pension and into employment they will be able to retain their Fuel Allowance payment for up to five years. In addition, where such people have children, they will now be eligible for the Back to Work Family Dividend which pays the equivalent of their Child Support Payment in year one and half of that amount in year two, for up to a maximum of four children.

Disability Allowance has been structured to support recipients to pursue employment opportunities, be that self-employment or insurable employment. People in receipt of Disability Allowance can take up employment or self-employment and continue to receive all or part of their social welfare payment, depending on their income. A person can earn up to €165 a week and keep their full rate of Disability Allowance and up to €517.60 a week and still keep their entitlement to the minimum rate of payment and their secondary benefits.

Partial Capacity Benefit allows a person who is in receipt of Illness Benefit for 26 weeks, or Invalidity Pension to enter or return to employment or self-employment and to continue to receive a partial or full payment. Partial Capacity Benefit has been designed so there are no restrictions or limits on earnings from employment or on the number of hours a person can work.

As well as income supports, my Department offers a range of employment supports to enable disabled people access to the workplace and provide ongoing support to help them retain employment.

The Intreo service is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports in the State. Disabled people can access mainstream employment schemes such as Community Employment and Tús as well as referral to tailored supports such as Employability, a service that offers a professional job-matching service, on-going support and advice and information on employment supports for disabled people.

Disabled people can meet with a Designated Disability Employment Personal Advisor to discuss employment and training options. There is now a Designated Disability Employment Personal Advisor in each of the 62 Intreo offices nationwide.

Launched in 2024, the new Work and Access scheme addresses barriers to the workplace for disabled people and offers continuous support. Seven supports are available for disabled people and their employers including job coaches, work equipment, communication support and training. Supports are available for both the business premises and remote workplaces.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme supports employers to hire disabled people through a subsidy. In August 2024, my Department published a review of the scheme to make it more accessible and flexible. As a result, the minimum hours for the scheme were reduced from 21 to 15 hours. The scheme was expanded to some of those on Partial Capacity Benefit and to the community and voluntary sector.

An additional €3.7 million has been allocated to the scheme. In June this year, we launched the revamped scheme. A media campaign to raise awareness of this very beneficial scheme for employers and employees followed the launch. It is hoped that the implementation of the recommendations of the review will result in an expansion of the scheme and support more disabled people into work.

Budget 2026 has provided for a further expansion to people who acquire a disability while in employment and to those who transfer from Invalidity Pension to Partial Capacity Benefit and provided for an increase in the subsidy rates. We also reduced the number of bands from six to three and increased the subsidy rates across all bands. As a result, most of the employers in receipt of the subsidy will see their level of subsidy increase by €1.20, from €6.30 to €7.50 per hour.

My Department is committed to supporting disabled people into employment and the Government recognises that more needs to be done for disabled people who want to work. The Programme for Government commits to expanding successful programmes like WorkAbility and Work and Access and to work with employers and across Government to improve employment of disabled people and this commitment is echoed the recently published National Human Rights Strategy for Disabled People 2025-2030.

These commitments will be advanced over the lifetime of the Government in light of the prevailing policy and budgetary context.

I trust this clarifies the position of the Deputy.