Social Welfare Payments
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
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Catherine Callaghan (FG), Carlow-Kilkenny

I acknowledge the work being done but, as a former family carer myself, I know full well that our carers provide an enormous service not only to their loved ones and those they care for but also to the State itself. It is estimated that each year the State saves €20 billion that would have to be invested in our health services were it not for the work of family carers. These carers work long and difficult days in the most demanding of roles, and caring for a loved one in older age can often be deeply challenging. I am therefore of the strong opinion that the State has a responsibility to look at our carers in an exceptional way and to care for them and to support them in every single way we can. While I said I welcome the body of work that has been done to phase out the carer's means test the Minister mentioned over the course of the current Government's term, I strongly support the commitments made in the programme for Government to ensure that the State give every support possible to help our carers in their role. I therefore ask the Minister to take one further step and to ensure that everything possible is done to provide pensioners caring for their children with the full rate of carer's allowance.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-15