This Government constantly tells us that it values the work of carers. It has a chance to prove that in the budget next week. So far, carers have never been prioritised by this Government or previous governments. The Taoiseach does not have to take my word for that. A report from Family Carers Ireland last year was damning. It found that an overwhelming majority of carers - 70% - find it difficult to make ends meet. That is the reality of life for carers in Ireland. Many are forced to cut back on essentials just to make ends meet.

That kind of treatment of carers is shameful. People have to work 24-7 because essential services are either non-existent or threadbare. Carers have been left to fill the gaps in a broken system and fight endless battles for every small scrap of State support. The means test for carers is a perfect example of this. In no other line of work are people assessed on their partner's income, household savings or anything else. Anyone starting work as a garda, nurse or teacher is simply paid for their work but carers are treated very differently. Despite being the backbone of the care system in this country and saving the State more than €20 billion a year, carers are asked to jump through endless hoops to secure a small allowance.

This approach is not just bureaucratic and exhausting; it is insulting. It reveals that the State really treats carers like their work is somehow optional and that it views supporting them like some kind of charity, instead of treating care like the essential work it is.

Every year at budget time, I say the same thing: show me your budget, and I will show you your priorities. The truth is that if the State really valued carers or the work they do, they would be supported. They would not be forced to beg, fight and plead for crumbs from the budgetary table.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed the removal of the means test for carer's allowance at €375 million a year. The Government could more than pay for that by tripling the bank levy, which would raise €400 million. Removing the means test for carer's allowance is affordable and achievable. It will be in the Social Democrats' alternative budget. Tomorrow the Dáil will debate a Social Democrats' motion on removing the means test for carers. Will the Government support it? Will the Government finally abolish the means test for carers?

I thank Deputy Cairns for raising a very important issue. We value the work of carers. Michael Woods brought in the carer's allowance quite a number of years ago. He was a Fianna Fáil Minister for social protection and at the time it was a novel concept. It was quite innovative. It started at a very low level, but incrementally things have improved significantly. We committed in the programme for Government to eliminate the means test. There is a tendency in the House to deny any progress at all about anything, and the world always seems to be miserable. There are huge challenges out there facing people and there are particularly huge challenges facing carers. Nonetheless, there has been progress. There are about 100,000 people now in receipt of carer's allowance. The numbers are increasing every year. The number of recipients is up from about 63,000 in 2015, which is nearly a 62% increase. Expenditure has gone from about €611 million to €1.24 billion. It can be more, but that does not suggest nobody cares on the Government side.

We need to reconcile the Parliamentary Budget Office's estimate of €300 million with the Department of Social Protection, which is saying €600 million. That is what is being estimated in the current round of Estimates. The Department is saying it could even go up, because obviously there would be an additional increase in the numbers. That is something which needs to be reconciled in terms of the actual cost. The Government proposes to phase in the removal of the means test. Broader progress will be made on income supports more generally. For example, the income disregard went up in July from €450 to €625 for a single person and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or a partner. That was a result of last year's budget measure. That means more and more people can avail of the carer's allowance payment. In terms of the respite, the carer's support grant itself has been brought up to about €2,000. That is up significantly from where it was some years ago. It is up about €300 since 2021. In the budget there will be a series of measures in respect of carers. Carer's benefit has been extended to the self-employed for the first time since January. Furthermore, the Minister for Social Protection will be bringing proposals to the Government, in the context of the budget, specifically on carers. That series of proposals will be in the context of an overall welfare budget that could be in the order of €1.7 billion or €1.8 billion. However, other categories of social protection have to be looked after as well, in the context of the budget.

The Taoiseach is acknowledging the need to abolish the means test for carers, from what I can gather. There is a commitment to abolish it over the term of this Government. The question is this: why wait? The Taoiseach says we do not acknowledge the work being done. I am acknowledging that this kind of work - these incremental reforms and the piecemeal things he is talking about - are bureaucratic.

Carers deserve better. They deserve fair pay and dignity now. They deserved it yesterday. They deserved it years ago. The Government can do this now, but it is still being denied to them. The Government has a choice. It can choose to provide immediate recognition, security and support for carers. It is not too late to do that in this budget. I keep coming back to this point. In no other work are people means-tested like this. They are just paid for the work they do. People live in a state of fear and anxiety that any meagre change in their incomes will tip them over a cliff edge into financial insecurity as a result of the system we have in place now. The Taoiseach acknowledged the need to do this over the term of the Government. It can be done overnight in this budget. The money is there.

Thank you, Deputy.

I will ask again: will the Government support the Social Democrats motion tomorrow on abolishing the means test for carers and will it be done in this budget?

The Deputy is correct when she says we have choices. Everyone in the House has choices. The estimated cost is around €600 million. We also want to increase domiciliary care allowance and other categories of social protection, which the Minister will bring to the Government in the first instance and then the measures will be announced on budget day. It will all come under an overall amount that will be allocated to the Department of Social Protection. If we increase one category, by definition other categories may not get a similar increase or may not get an increase at all. We have to balance this and that is why it will be done incrementally.

We have made significant improvements in the disregards in the past two to three years and that should be acknowledged. However, we want to go faster now in moving to a position where we can eliminate the means test in its entirety.

The commitment is like that in the Social Democrats manifesto, which I looked at before I came in. It did not say that this would be done in one budget. It indicated that it would be done over the lifetime of the Government.