A person in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance can make an application for Carer’s Allowance. However, they will then not satisfy the available for full-time work condition for a jobseeker payment as they are declaring on their Carer’s Allowance application that they are caring for another person in a full-time capacity.

Once the application for Carer’s Allowance is made, a revised decision is carried out on their Jobseeker’s Allowance claim and the person is advised to apply for a Supplementary Welfare Allowance payment from their local Community Welfare Officer while awaiting a decision on their Carer’s Allowance claim.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

It is 20 years before that I am worried about.

My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Combined spending on all these payments in 2022 is estimated to be almost €1.6 billion.

The Carer’s Allowance is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. Carer’s Allowance is a means tested social assistance payment awarded to those carers who are caring for certain people who require full-time care and attention. The objective of the payment is to provide an income support to carers whose earning capacity is substantially reduced as a consequence of their caring responsibilities and in so doing to support the ongoing care of the person in respect of whom care is being provided.

A primary qualifying condition for the Carer’s Allowance is that the applicant provides full-time care and attention to a person in need of such care. The minimum hours condition for which a carer can be regarded as providing full-time care and attention is set out in legislation. A carer will be regarded as providing full-time care and attention to a relevant person, where the number of hours providing such care is not less than 35 hours in a period of 7 consecutive days, and this care is provided on any 5 days, whether consecutive or not, within a period of 7 consecutive days.

However, in order to support a carer’s continued attachment to the workforce and to support broader social inclusion, carers may engage in employment, education or training for up to 18.5 hours per week while still being regarded as being in a position to provide full-time care and continue to receive their full payment. During this time of employment, training or education, adequate provision must be made for the care of the relevant person.

It should be noted that both the full-time care and attention requirement and the 18.5-hour limitation are contained in the respective legislative provisions of the Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit and Carer’s Support Grant schemes.

In summary, a person in receipt of Carer's Allowance can still meet the full-time caring condition and participate in any employment, training or educational activity if they meet the criteria outlined above.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

There was an expert group set up a decade before that.

In terms of the expert group, Mr. Justice Meenan submitted the final report on the current system for managing clinical negligence claims to the Ministers for Health and Justice prior to the onset of Covid. The Meenan report has been published. It is the basis for getting forward. I will talk to the Minister to make sure that we progress this as soon as we can.