Social Welfare Payments Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24 ============================================================ Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo We are engaging around it. Given that the carer's support grant is not means-tested and is non-taxable, it is very important signal. That grant has increased by €300 since 2021. If we look at the rates of change in carer's benefit and carer's allowance in January 2022, we can see that carer's allowance was €224 a week in January 2022 and went to €270 and that carer's benefit has gone from €225 to €271. We are also investing considerably in the weekly payment that is given to carers. There have been a lot of changes in the carer's support grant over a number of years and we will continue to focus on it. The current rate is the highest rate ever and I think the highest number of people are in receipt of that payment. What I would say to all Deputies is that there is no closing date for applications for it and if there are people engaging with their offices, who are not getting it, please put them in contact with us. Over 147,000 carers have received the carer's support grant to date in 2026 out of an investment over €364 million. It was paid on 4 June and since that date, over 5,000 people have actually applied and qualified for the grant. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-24