I raise the situation of families with incapacitated children. I have a family in my constituency whom I know well, whose child, due to the exceptional care she has received, has reached the age of seven years and made her first communion earlier this year. This child cannot walk, cannot talk and she has no swallow but due to the exceptional care her mother has given her she has managed to survive. However, this family are under huge financial pressure. Earlier this year the husband received a bonus at work and because of this his wife's carer's allowance was cut to €46.50 per week. She gave up a very good job to look after their child and they are saving the State an absolute fortune by looking after their child at home. They have other expenses with other members of the family that have increased because of the huge care they are giving to this child. Medical cards for incapacitated children are not means-tested. I ask that in the budget due the week after next, there would not be a means test for carer's allowance for families who have an incapacitated child. It is a very small cohort of families who are affected and the difference to the Exchequer would be very small. I ask that the Government give this consideration in the budget.

I thank the Deputy for sharing that story. I should say that the domiciliary care allowance, DCA, is not means-tested but the carer's allowance is. I would love it if it were possible for there to be no means tests but unfortunately they are necessary because financial resources, even in a very wealthy country, are limited. However, sometimes means tests are too mean and when knocking on doors over the summer I came across a number of examples where people have lost eligibility for the carer's allowance or a student grant because they got a pay increase, a promotion or worked overtime. That is not fair and we must take that into account across the budget so means test thresholds are realistic. As wages, rise, the thresholds should rise too.