Care Services
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I thank the Deputy. That is a very good suggestion. When we complete our budget negotiations, it would be useful to remind people that a single person working as a carer can have an income of up to €1,000 per week and a couple, €2,000, and still be in receipt of a full carer’s payment. In the context of the carer's support grant, I made the point earlier to Deputy Healy that we paid the annual grant as always on the first Thursday of June. It was a record amount this year. In the two or three months since June, an additional 5,000 payments have been made. I had a conversation with Deputy Hayes earlier about awareness-building generally around the accessibility of the social protection system. That is something I am going to be focused on in the winter and as soon as we have clarity around what the budget rates for 2027 will be.
In the context of changing means but also demographic and social changes and the implementation on the ground of more community-based care, there is a lot more interest in the carer’s allowance. We will provide people with that necessary information.

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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