Laois Carer calls for the abolition of the means test for Carers in the budget

A full time Laois carer has urged the government to abolish the carers allowance means test in the upcoming budget. 

Niamh Ryan lives in Portlaoise with her husband Gerry and sons Liam and Sean. She is a full time carer for Liam, who is 16 and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, is wheelchair bound and requires full time care and regular treatment.  

“It is a very unfair system really. There are so many carers who get nothing at all because of the means test,” Niamh told the Leinster Express / Laois Live.  

She said the current system should take into account the cost of caring and the increased outgoings associated with caring.  

Niamh said it was difficult for carers to even get their stories out to the public. 

“We can’t drop what we are doing and march on the Dáil,” she explained. 

She said carers have a range of additional costs associated with their work. In Niamh’s case this includes increased heating and electricity costs for essential equipment, costs associated with maintaining that equipment, costs associated with her son’s incontinence and having to purchase and maintain a wheelchair friendly vehicle. 

“Up to 2013 there was a mobility grant… that was put on hold and 11 years later there’s nothing,” she said.   

Niamh said many carers are also having to pay for therapies which are supposed to be provided by the State. 

She believes the Government know they have carers “over a barrel” because they know they aren’t able to stop what they are doing. 

“They know that people aren’t going to down tools… my son, if you just abandoned him, he can’t go anywhere, he can’t care for himself,” she said. 

She said that while she gets a partial carers allowance, there are many more people not so fortunate. 

“There is 500,000 carers in the country and many of them get absolutely nothing for what they do,” she said. 

Niamh, who had to leave work to care full time for her son,  said it is a full time job without any break. “It is the hardest job I have ever done,” she said. 

“When the Government tell you they respect and value carers, we take it with a pinch of salt,” she admitted. She said it was time for the Government to now show Ireland’s carers some of that respect. 

Independent TD Cathal Berry,  was among the Regional Group of TDs who called for the abolition of the means test during a discussion in the Dáil . 

“We are very much in favour of abolishing the means test... I will acknowledge the small progress that has occurred over recent years as regards the threshold and the quantum of the payment. It is good but it is not good enough and we can go further.  

“That is the reason we are strongly proposing a roadmap towards abolishing the means test for carer's allowance. This is for three reasons in particular. The first is money, the second is a moral reason and the third relates to gender equality,” said Dep Berry who represents Laois and Offaly voters around Portarlington  in the Kildare South constituency. 

“It delivers cash right to the bedside, the point of care. It is not syphoned off by layers of administration, bureaucracy and management as it goes downstream. From a money point of view, it is money very well spent.”

Morally, he pointed out that carers were in their position due what he described as “the lottery of life,” not by choice. 

“The State should never be seen to take advantage of or exploit that goodness and the love in a family unit,” he stated. 

In relation to gender, he pointed out that 90 % of carers in Ireland were women. 

“A female's income should not be predicated on the income of her spouse and that is what is happening now. Instead of getting paid for the work they do, a proportion is syphoned off based on the income of the spouse. We do not think that is right,” said Deputy Berry. 

“We are strongly of the view that there is still time in the lifetime of this Dáil and this Government to do right by carers. We would argue very strongly for the abolition of the means test for carer's allowance. If the Minister or the Government were to do so, I have no doubt that they would have the support of the entire House,” he added. 

Ireland’s carers are hoping the government will abolish the means test in the budget which takes place today,  Tuesday, October 1.  

Meanwhile, Laois Offaly Independent TD Carol Nolan called for significant reform of the Carer’s Allowance income assessment criteria.

Dep Nolan called for an abolition of the means test and said that the issue is being raised with her on a daily basis ahead of Budget 2025. 

“My engagement with the carer representative organisations has made it absolutely clear to me that systemic reform of the entire carer’s payment regime is badly overdue. This Budget must be the opportunity in which such reform is brought about,” said Deputy Nolan.