Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this motion. A lot of nursing homes have closed. No one can put a value on the amount of help that people give in their own homes to help elderly or young people. I listened to "Today with Claire Byrne" this morning. A mother of a child with autism was on the show. She had a coffee shop which she had to close but because she and her husband worked hard and they had a few pound in the bank, they were entitled to €20 based on the means test. That is for somebody who closed their business and minded their child seven days a week. On top of that, they had to fight for services. Whatever few pound they got was put towards private help when the public services were not able to give it.

I spoke to a woman the other day who lived in Dublin. Her mother who lives close to me got sick so the woman moved down but because the house in Dublin was empty, it was classed as an asset and she was not entitled to the carer's allowance. The other question was how could you own a house in Dublin and look after someone down the country. The facts are that a lot of sons, daughters, brothers and sisters give up an awful lot to help people rather than having them go into nursing homes or hospitals. We should appreciate what they do, and not put them through the torture of the means test.

We should always look at how a country looks after people who are vulnerable. At the moment, as a country that is basically awash with money, we are not providing the services required. Let us consider what a carer gets under the carer's allowance compared with what it costs if a person goes into a nursing home. It is probably five times more if that person had to go into a nursing home. Let us do the maths. As my colleague Marian said, it costs approximately €600 million to €2 billion. We should have a fair idea what it would cost and I believe this country can afford to give that service to those people and basically get rid of the means test.

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