Would the Minister not agree that it would be much fairer to pay the prescribed relative allowance to the person who does the caring? In general this work is done by women? Can the Minister also indicate whether he would consider it appropriate, as I do, that the person involved should be eligible to retain her social welfare credits or entitlements? It is a disgrace that a woman could spend upto 20 years looking after an elderly or sick parent and find herself entitled to nothing at the end of that time.

The Deputy will appreciate that if we were to change to that system we would have to take into account its widespread implications throughout the community. We would have to find a way of defining both those who look after an elderly relative and those who are being looked after. From a financial point of view, the cost of such a change could be considerable.

Would the Minister not accept that if those who look after elderly parents were to say they will no longer do so and will instead claim unemployment assistance or in some cases the payment given to a single woman over the age of 58, they would actually receive between £10 and £11 more a week and would he not agree that it would make more sense to pay the prescribed relative allowance direct to the person concerned and at the rate of the minimum unemployment assistance?

While I accept that those who look after elderly relatives are in many cases saving the State the expense of providing institutional care it does not necessarily follow that the State should provide a level of financial compensation to relatives for the services they provide to their elderly relatives.

Does the Minister not accept——

Order, please. Please allow the Minister to answer the question.

——that he is penalising them for looking after their elderly relatives.

Let us hear the reply.

The Deputy realises that in one case we could find ourselves involving a much broader range of population and that we would have to qualify any change we would make and to be able to control the circumstances in which payments would apply.