The carer's benefit scheme allows people who are working to take time off to care for family members, often children. It is not means tested and it is based on PRSI contributions. It has a requirement that people must work a minimum of 16 hours per week in the period prior to their claim. This is patently unfair to teachers who work, say, 11 hours per week and are deemed not to qualify.

I thank the Deputy for this question. The Government acknowledges the very valuable role that family carers play and we are fully committed to supporting carers in that role. The commitment is recognised in the programme for Government and in budget changes for 2026 where the earnings limit for carer’s benefit will increase from €625 to €1,000 after tax from July, there will be a €10 increase in the weekly rate of carer’s benefit, and carer's benefit will be made available to the self-employed for the first time. As the Deputy said, carer's benefit is a payment made to ensure people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a person in need of full-time care. It is payable for a period of up to two years for each care recipient and may be claimed in one go or over separate periods.

There were 4,616 people in receipt of carer's benefit at the end of January 2026. Expenditure on the carer’s benefit scheme is estimated to exceed €76 million this year. To qualify for carer’s benefit, a person must meet the PRSI and other conditions of the scheme and have been in full-time employed for at least eight weeks in the previous 26 weeks. Another qualifying condition is that the applicant provides full-time care and attention of no less than 35 hours per week to a person in need of such care. The carer is allowed to work or engage in education and training for up to 18.5 hours a week. The 18.5-hour limit for carer's benefit reflects a careful balance between ensuring the care recipient receives full-time care but also enables carers to maintain a connection to employment, training, education or to other interests. Any proposal to amend the 18.5-hour limit would need to preserve that balance and would have to be considered in the broader budgetary and policy context.

I thank the Minister for that. I am aware of all that information but I am focusing on something different. I refer to the qualification based on the number of hours carers work. Sixteen hours is the number. I will explain this briefly. There are two particular circumstances in relation to teachers and even if one were applied in the qualification process, then a teacher on fewer than 16 hours would qualify. At the moment, for a teacher who works 11.2 hours a week, this represents over half the number of hours of a full-time teacher who has 22 class-contact hours. This person works over half a full-time week. In any other full-time role, a person who works half-time will work between 17.5 and 20 hours and, therefore, will qualify for the carer's benefit. There is a distinction with teachers. They must work over 16 hours a week to qualify but that is well over half what a teacher does. I know of a case of a teacher who does 11.2 hours and they do not qualify but anyone else working half their normal week of 35 to 40 hours - that is, 17.5 to 20 hours - would qualify. I will give other reasons in my next contribution about extra hours teachers do that are not taken into account.

I am happy to engage with the Deputy around the specific instances. Subsequently, we can examine those in more detail. As I said, we have made substantial increases to the means assessment and that will continue from 1 July this year. We have also increased the carer's benefit rate by €51 over the past five years. Previously, this was done by the then Minister, Heather Humphreys, and I have continued that. The changes in the income limits from €625, which started from July, will continue to increase in 2026.

On the specific issue of teachers' hours and what is regarded as a full working week, I am happy to engage in that to see if that can be resolved. I look forward to hearing more details in the Deputy's next supplementary.

I will expand a bit more in relation to teachers. Teachers do much more than 22 class-contact hours. They are required to do many more hours outside the 22 hours and this was outlined in the Croke Park agreement. It includes yard supervision duties and class supervision. There are many other requirements, including planning and setting exams, contact with parents on many issues and continuous professional development. The actual hours worked by someone doing 11.2 hours is actually more than the 16-hour requirement but this is not recognised in some cases while it is in others. I ask that teachers, who work over half the week, be considered to qualify. The 16 hours is the cliff edge but that is not fair on teachers because their week is different. There is the 22 class-contact hours but they do additional hours. If they do 11.2 hours, they are doing more than half. Any other employee in any other job would qualify straightaway. Teachers are a unique case and I ask the Minister to examine that.

Certainly, we will engage on that. There are also issues being brought to my attention around teachers who are job-sharing and that complicate the Deputy's scenario even more. Those who are working fewer than 18.5 hours may qualify for carer's allowance, which would be subject to the means test and to other eligibility requirements. If the Deputy wants to send me the details, we will engage with him around it. Any changes to the carer's benefit or to the qualifying conditions in terms of hours or means obviously has other knock-on issues, so I do not want to give the Deputy a commitment without fully analysing the details. We will drill down into those details and will work with the Deputy's office on that.