I assure the Deputy that we are very much focused on carers. If he thinks I am not giving away much, he should talk to the Minister for public expenditure. We are working hard in this space. In 2026, we invested €2.2 billion in carer's support payments, which is a really solid indication of where we are going on this. We pay the carer's support grant on 4 June every year, or the first Thursday in June every year. Since then, which is maybe less than three months ago, an additional 5,000 people have come into paymen…

Changes to social welfare rates cannot be just based on trends in prices or wages but must take account of a wider range of factors, including household composition, patterns in the consumption of households and developments in services, including, for example, the expansion of free GP care, school meals and free school books. Accordingly, changes to social welfare rates, including means tests, are based on a wide range of inputs used by my Department, most notably CSO data, including the survey of income and livin…

As I said, we work hard to keep core social welfare rates ahead of inflation. We cannot just identify them in the context of not looking at the other supports that are available. On fuel allowance, we have increased the rate and the eligibility and, this year, we increased the season by an extra four weeks. That is an additional €1,100 of income for those 410,000 people who qualify, and that is on top of their weekly rate. I have referred to a range of other supports across the morning’s session in this regard. We …

Core rates have increased for all payments, including disability allowance. Core rates in budget 2026 increased by 4.1%, and by 4.8% for some payments. Second, in the so-called noughties, what the Deputy calls pre-austerity, there were no hot school meals going to every primary school in the country. A minimum of 500,000 children are now receiving hot school meals every year. That is an investment of nearly €300 million. It is a cost reduction for families that otherwise would be paying for meals. Every family is g…

Carer’s allowance is the main income support for carers. Some 111,000 people are receiving the payment, with an estimated investment of over €1.4 billion this year. Carer's benefit is a weekly social insurance-based payment for those who leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to provide full-time care. At the end of August, there were 5,136 recipients of carer's benefit, with an investment of over €76 million this year. The programme for Government commits to significantly increasing the income disregard…

The Deputy is very experienced. He knows there is a programme for Government. I hope to be in office for five years, and I will deliver on the commitment. It has to be done on a phased basis. I would love to do it overnight. If did that, however, the Deputy would be criticising me for not doing other things in the Department. We have had record increases. I genuinely think that any payment in respect of which you can have an income of €110,000 and retain the full allowance gives a sense of the direction of travel. …

Respectfully, I object to the Deputy's assertion that we are not delivering on this. There has been a 60% increase to the income disregard. Somebody on €110,000 can get a full carer's payment. We are working towards the abolition of the means test. I will examine the difference between the number of people receiving the carer's support grant and the number getting the carer's allowance. They may be people who are working and who do not want to get the full payment, but I will examine the position. I reiterate that …

Fuel allowance eligibility encompasses 23 qualifying schemes, demonstrating the comprehensive nature of the supports available to eligible households. In addition to these qualifying schemes, people over the age 66 do not need to be in receipt of a payment from the Department of Social Protection to qualify for fuel allowance, subject to the means test. According to the most recent CSO data, there are just over 1.8 million households in Ireland. Of these, 463,910 are currently eligible for the fuel allowance scheme…

Eligibility for fuel allowance has been extended and has changed extensively over the past number of years. We introduced 50,000 new families into it. It is the first time fuel allowance has been extended to those on working incomes. It is something I want to continue that those in lower-paid jobs get support. Almost €557 million is being invested in the fuel allowance scheme and we are negotiating in the context of budget 2027 a very significant energy package across Government. The fuel allowance will form part o…

We have invested in this. Since 2020, an additional 100,000 households have qualified for the fuel allowance. As I said, we have gone through the extension of means for older people in particular and since 2020, we have invested €290 million in the fuel allowance. In 2026, we will invest €557 million and, subject to the budget negotiations, that will continue and grow. I am going to ensure that every Deputy in the House gets the 23 schemes available in terms of the fuel allowance and the supports. Some 100,000 addi…

The carer's allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment for people who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires such care. There are a number of qualifying conditions for carer’s allowance. These include conditions relating to the care recipient's need for full-time care and attention, the provision of that care by the applicant, the applicant’s employment or education circumstances, residency requirements and satisfaction of the means test. As part of budget 2026, I announced s…

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 …

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta as an gceist thábhachtach seo. Mar is eol dó, the household benefits package is available to those who are aged 70 and over, regardless of means or household composition. It is also available as a supplementary allowance to those in receipt of about 15 different social protection payments. In total, 561,000 households benefit from the payment. We will invest €317 million this year on household benefit, of which about €231 million is allocated in respect of energy costs. It is an imp…

I assure the Deputy that we are very focused on all energy costs and on electricity in particular. That is why we have looked at the fuel allowance in particular for the older age cohort in terms of expanding eligibility for it. The allowable means for those aged 66 and over for the fuel allowance is now €534 per week for a single person and €1,068 for a couple. In particular, we have increased the disregard of savings and investments from €20,000 to €50,000 for those aged 66 and over to encourage more eligibility …

I see why the Deputy wants to isolate the electricity part in the context of the household benefits package, but we cannot isolate it without looking at the other changes that have been made in the context of additional payments. I focused on the fuel announcement, particularly for the cohort that applied for household benefits - the change in income and in savings and investments, which will allow people to qualify for the fuel allowance. That is why we have 100,000 more people qualifying for the fuel allowance si…

The Government very much recognises the additional costs that disabled people face in their daily lives and we are committed to improving outcomes for disabled people by introducing permanent measures. This is why, as part of the programme for Government, we have included a commitment to introduce a permanent annual cost-of-disability payment. To that end, the national human rights strategy for disabled people was developed with significant input from disability groups and advocates. It included a commitment to a s…

Nice try, Deputy. The budget negotiations are ongoing. It is very important, and I very much recognise that the estimates of costs that are there. The first payment will not address all of those. The key issue will be to introduce the permanent disability payment. It will grow, as many other social protection payments have done, but we will begin the work on how we deliver that payment through codesign, partnership and as far as we can with the disabled persons organisations. There are many differing views as to ho…

On the heating supplement, we had a very productive meeting with the Irish Cancer Society yesterday on how we could work with it. I am certainly happy to work with other groups in promoting the heating supplement. As the Deputy said, there is a low uptake. We will engage on that. Generally, we have not finalised our budget at all yet. I know I have the support of the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister of State, Deputy Canney, as the three leaders of the Government, in introducing this. We will be negotiating …

We have just completed a public consultation on a second-tier of payment. It concluded on 12 June and we received submissions from representative bodies, advocacy organisations and service providers. We are currently finalising the analysis of that consultation. On 8 September, the ESRI published its sixth annual report on poverty, income inequality and living standards. The report proposes a version of a second-tier child benefit as a possible mechanism. It was a very different proposal from the one considered by …

We will engage with the ESRI. It was a very different model from the one it proposed previously. We also want to engage with the ESRI on details on income thresholds and what means test it would have in mind. There is quite a lot of work to be done in this space. We want to incorporate the feedback from the consultation process and engage with Members of the Oireachtas on their views in this space.