Budget 2027
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Seamus Healy (IND), Tipperary South

The Minister's party and every other party in this House made a commitment to the electorate. That commitment has not been honoured. That is a very serious situation because it calls into question people's trust in the democratic process and in politicians. That is serious. The Minister should take what I am saying on board and abolish the means test in the forthcoming budget. There are something like 33,000 carers in receipt of the carer's support grant who are not in receipt of the carer's allowance. That is a significant number. These people do the same work as all other carers. They are under the same pressures as other carers. They feel the same loneliness and have the same lack of respite and mental health difficulties. They should surely be entitled to the carer's allowance. The moneys involved are not significant. The Parliamentary Budget Office has indicated that. This is something which, in the context of the political and democratic processes and in the context of being fair to people, the Minister should introduce in the budget.

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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