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406. Deputy Brian Brennan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will make the carer's allowance and carer's benefit tax exempt similar to other social welfare supports in recognition of savings these carers offer the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18247/26]

391. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if his Department or the Revenue Commissioners publish figures on actual Exchequer tax revenue generated specifically from carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit; if so, to provide those figures for the past three tax years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9339/26]

397. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will confirm that carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit are treated as taxable income for income tax purposes; to clarify under which tax codes or Revenue rules this treatment is applied; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9336/26]

213. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will abolish income tax levied on carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7086/26]

327. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if he will consider exempting carers allowance and carer's benefit from income tax; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5288/26]

328. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance to provide estimates from the Revenue Commissioner for 2026 in respect of the amount of revenue vis-à-vis adjustments to tax credits impacting on carers allowance and carers benefit claimants respectively, that they estimate will be raised as a result of the new data sharing arrangements in place between Revenue and the Department of…

329. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance the number of PAYE taxpayers who are in receipt of the carers’ allowance and carers’ benefit respectively, who have had their tax credits adjusted arising from the new data-sharing arrangements in place between the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5290/26]

1567. Deputy Paul Lawless asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will review the rules governing carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit in cases where a full-time carer is providing care to three dependants, given that the current system provides no additional payment for the third person despite the significant extra workload involved; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1383/2…

296. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Finance if the Revenue Commissioners have been instructed by the Department of Social Protection to automatically apply tax to carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit from January 2026; the practical steps Revenue Commissioners will take; if any exemptions or hardship protections will apply for low-income households; and if he will make a state…

539. Deputy Ken O'Flynn asked the Minister for Social Protection his Department’s projected expenditure in 2026 on disability allowance, invalidity pension, blind pension, domiciliary care allowance and carer’s allowance. [69176/25]

546. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection to reverse or amend the decision to automatically tax carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit from January 2026, given the financial hardship this will cause for full-time carers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69543/25]

547. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection if he has carried out a financial impact assessment of the planned automatic taxation of carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit from January 2026; if hardship protections or exemptions will be introduced for full-time carers on low incomes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69544/25]

548. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Social Protection the consultation which took place with carers’ representative groups before introducing automatic taxation of carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit; if he will consider suspending the measure pending meaningful consultation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [69545/25]

389. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of individuals who received the carers support grant in June 2025 and who are not also in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit. [68017/25]

1148. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline the decision making process on setting the limit on the length of time a person can work while been in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [57777/25]

651. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Social Protection if under the successor scheme to the basic income for arts announced in Budget 2026, for individuals who are in receipt of social welfare payments, including disability allowance and carers allowance will be permitted to retain those payments while participating in the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [550…

773. Deputy Carol Nolan asked the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality if she will support in Budget 2026 the raising of disability allowance, domiciliary care allowance, and carer’s allowance by at least €50 per week and introduce a permanent cost of disability payment; fund key priorities in the action plan for disability services 2024 to 2026, with a focus on personal assistance, inde…

93. Deputy Louis O'Hara asked the Minister for Social Protection the dental benefits a person in receipt of carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit can avail of; whether his Department plans to expand the range of free dental services that carers can avail of, such as the services available under the dental treatment services scheme recipients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [50716/25…

511. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Social Protection if he has examined the repercussions that the National Minimum Wage Act 2000 will have on carers (details supplied); if he plans plan to communicate this change to carers and advise them of the repercussions it may have on their ability to claim carer’s allowance or carer’s benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [353…

910. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures that have been taken to address the long processing times for those awaiting a decision on their domiciliary care allowance or carer's allowance appeal, where applicants are being advised of a wait of six to 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29683/25]

73. Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will amend the local authority differential rent scheme to exclude carer's allowance and carer's benefit from rent assessment under the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24262/25]

984. Deputy Seamus Healy asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to amend the local authority differential rent scheme to exclude carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit from rent assessment under the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12824/25]

175. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Finance if he will ensure that carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit will no longer be subject to taxation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6872/25]

718. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Social Protection the current average waiting time for disability allowance and for carer’s allowance applications, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63361/25]

73. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection when his Department will publish a concrete roadmap and timeline for the complete abolition of a means test, given the recent income increase in family carers allowance thousands of family carers are still facing complex financial issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46152/26]

From 1 January this year, the Department of Social Protection has been sharing information with Revenue in relation to those in receipt of carer’s benefit and carer’s allowance who are on the PAYE income list for last year - they may have been working a few hours per week - to inform them that they are now to be taxed. The tax will be deducted at source. It will apply not just from this year onwar…

The lifetime of this Government is to 2029. I have my ambitions to maintain this commitment. Any situation where a social protection support is available to a family on €110,000 per year in full or to a family on €138,000 in part represents very good progress. These are the biggest increases in the income disregard for the carer's allowance and will come into effect on 1 July. However, I also must…

I thank Deputies O'Sullivan and O'Connor for the question. The programme for Government contains the commitment to abolish the means test for carers over the life of the Government. Budget 2026 increases the earnings disregard for carer's allowance by €375 to €1,000 per week for a single person and by €750 to €2,000 per week for a couple from July 2026. These are the largest ever increases in the …

Carers and front-line health workers are the backbone of our care system. I want to acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of home carers in Ireland who are our unsung heroes. Carers enable people to care and to live independently in their own homes with dignity for as long as they can. This is hugely important for people's quality of life and it greatly reduces the pressure on our healthcare syste…

Means-testing for the carer's allowance is not fair on either carers or patients. It could end up costing the State hundreds of millions of euro. The carer's allowance is a weekly social welfare payment to people who care for someone because of their age, disability or illness, including mental ill-health, for at least 35 hours per week over five to seven days. Personal savings should have no impa…

The cost-of-living crisis did not end once the election was over last year. A recent report from Barnardos found that four out of ten parents skip meals or eat less to stop their children going hungry. This Government has forgotten about these families. This is a giveaway budget for property developers and owners of fast food chains. There are handouts for millionaires while ordinary families stru…

I commend my colleague, Deputy Wall, whose commitment to carers neither begins nor ends with this motion. He has done, and continues to do, wonderful work. I also commend the young carers who are here. Nowhere in this country does the State get better bang for its buck than the money it gives to carers. That is compounded even more by young carers who get nothing. With what they give, and what the…

This week, I would like to use my time to speak about carer's allowance and, in particular, the commitment in the programme for Government to abolish the means test. In Carlow and Kilkenny, I know many families where one parent gives up work to care full time for a child and the other parent then needs to work extra hours to pay the mortgage and bills. This additional necessary income then prevent…

During last year’s general election campaign, I met many carers who were not eligible for the carer’s allowance because their partners either got overtime or a promotion. Many people felt it demeaning that their role in caring and the job they were doing were dependent on their partners’ incomes. I welcome the increase in the income disregard. If I am correct, this means a couple can earn up to €…

I commend the Independent Technical Group on its motion before the House today. I welcome the discussion of issues that are of such fundamental importance in the pursuit of a fair and inclusive society, and in how we value or fail to value the lives of our disabled citizens and our elders and, essentially, who we are as a society and as a republic. In this context, the means test for the carer's a…

The programme for Government is pretty thin gruel when you sit down and look at it. There are commitments to "examine", "consider", "evaluate" and "assess". Where the people of Ireland would have hoped for a significant radical shift in some areas of policy to resolve the challenges we face, particularly in housing and health, they were met with a programme for Government that resembled nothing so…

I thank the Deputy and congratulate him and welcome him back to the House. Carer’s allowance is an important income support for people who have caring responsibilities. That is clear from the fact that there are nearly 99,000 people in receipt of the payment and expenditure on the scheme in 2025 is estimated to be over €1.24 billion. In common with other welfare payments to people aged under 66 …

This time last year, Aontú proposed a motion in this Chamber seeking the ending of the means test for the carer's allowance. That motion was co-signed by Seán Canney and Noel Grealish who are now junior Ministers in this Government and it had a timeframe of 2027 for the complete abolition of the means test. It is very clear that there is absolutely no will in the Government to abolish the means te…

In preparing for today's motion, I could not get away from the thought that if tens of thousands of children were working in any other industry in this country unpaid, unrecognised, unsupported and unprotected by the State, it would be an absolute national scandal. Yet, day after day, this is happening in homes the length and breadth of the country where young people are, as my colleagues have sai…

I welcome the Minister to the House this evening and I welcome the opportunity to discuss, once again, social protection and the recent budget. In responding to budget 2026 previously in this House, I described it as a punch in the stomach for many working families and unfortunately, I must repeat that here in this debate today. Budget 2026 needed to deliver real and radical policy changes towards…

I am pleased to speak in support of the Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025. The Bill introduces significant and welcome changes. It finalises the arrangements for the new automatic enrolment system, which will ensure that all employees have access to a pension, and also gives effect to the improvements set out in the budget. It is important to …

I thank the Minister of State for the response. I will start by saying that I acknowledge again the huge step forward that we have made in supporting carers, with our long overdue recognition of the role they play in our economy and society by looking after those who need care. However, it is also important to ensure that when we are spending money on supporting carers the income supports are effe…

I assure the Deputy that we will continue the work of recent Governments in terms of supporting the work of carers, which we feel is very important. We have already discussed this morning the increases in the income disregard, the weekly increase to carer's allowance and carer's benefit and the increase in the carer's support grant. Since January, the carer's allowance is now included as a qualif…

My Department provides a number of supports for small-scale farmers in the circumstances outlined by Deputy Roche. Farm assist is the statutory income support specifically for farmers on low incomes. A person can qualify for farm assist if he or she is aged from 18 to 66, engaged in farming and meets the other statutory scheme conditions of the scheme. The farm assist scheme is similar to the jobs…

The Government has broken its promises to carers. In the general election, the Government promised to abolish the means tests for carers. This was another broken promise. In this budget, so little money has been allocated that at this rate of investment it would take 30 years under Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, in the case of the Minister of State, Independents, to abolish the means tests. This is a…

I thank Deputy Callaghan for acknowledging that there will be a personal income tax package. The aim is that it will deliver in line with the programme for Government commitments around progressive changes. We will look at the various options in the round. We will decide them on 6 October and will have plenty of opportunities to engage directly and to engage through this structure in advance of th…

I thank the Deputy for his question. As he knows and referred to, the programme for Government has committed to protect core welfare rates while ensuring that available resources are targeted at vulnerable groups. The programme for Government includes a commitment to examine key ancillary benefits such as the fuel allowance, household benefits package and living alone allowance to support vulnerab…

For years, the struggles faced by family carers have been raised here in the Dáil and in communities across Ireland. Family Carers Ireland has told us clearly that carers' situation needs to be treated like a house on fire. Budget 2026 was the Government's chance to take on that fire. Instead, this Government has arrived with little more than a water pistol. Last week in the Dáil, TD after TD from…

The Government does acknowledge and takes very seriously the role of carers in our society. I acknowledge that we have made commitments in the programme for Government, particularly the commitment in terms of the weekly income disregard and that we would eliminate the means test, essentially. Already, as part of the most recent budget, and from this July, the weekly income disregard will increase …

I thank the Minister for that. Regarding what he has just said on providing additional supports, in parliamentary questions I tabled to the Minister, it came to light that only 4.4% of those who were in receipt of carer's allowance were getting fuel allowance, which is a very low figure. Some 106,000 people in this country are getting carer's allowance and only short of 6,000 of those are in recei…