I join colleagues in congratulating Senator Nicole Ryan on her fantastic news. I wish her and her family the very best.

I want to discuss the issue of the family carer's payment. In my county of Wexford, approximately 16,000 people are caring for a loved one - a child with a disability, a spouse with an illness or a parent with dementia or Alzheimer's. At the moment, they are entitled to approximately €270 per week, but that is subject to a means test. Unfortunately, the cold, hard reality of that means test, which takes into account your part-time job, your spouse's income and your savings, means that many people are on reduced payments or are not receiving a payment. It is important that we recognise the contribution of these carers, the work they are doing in saving money for the State by caring for people who otherwise would be in a nursing home or a hospital bed. The party of which I am a part, namely, Fine Gael, and the Government as a whole, agreed that we would abolish the means test and that we would increase the amount paid to carers from €270 to €325. Changes have been made to the level of savings and income people can have before the full means test kicks in, and I know those changes will be introduced in July. However, the Minister for Social Protection must come in here and give us a clear timeline for when the means test will be abolished fully and when the €325 payment will be made available to all those people who are saving the State hundreds of millions of euro every year. I am asking that we bring the Minister to the House to have a debate on the issue so that the people who are caring at the moment have certainty on when the means test will be gone and the higher payment of €325 will come in.