I attended a presentation this morning on a report by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice. I commend Sr. Bernadette MacMahon and her team, alongside Dr. Nikki Dunne of Family Carers Ireland, on the excellent work they have done and presented on the cost of care at home for those with disabilities and on the premise that everyone should have a minimum essential standard of living, MESL, based on one's essential needs not the wants. The report is a phenomenal piece of work.

One matter that arises from it is that being in receipt of carer's allowance is not an automatic entitlement for the fuel allowance. Given the times we are living in and that the research today says that at least €168 per week more will be required just to give that minimum essential standard of living, can the Government commit to including carer's allowance as an automatic entitlement to the fuel allowance, now and in the future, and remove it from the means test?

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and I commend the work of the Vincentian Partnership. We take on board many of its recommendations when compiling budgets. That is why in the most recent budget I was delighted to be able to introduce a broad range of measures to support carers. We increased the means threshold and the capital allowance. A great deal of work has been done in this area in order to improve the situation of carers. However, there is more to be done. Of course, we will take any reports of this nature into consideration when we are looking at our budget considerations in the coming months. I will be meeting with the Vincentian Partnership, along with the many other organisations to which we provide a lot of support, and asking it to highlight the issues outlined in its report.