Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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219. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the annual cost of increasing the carer's support grant by €25 per year, €50 per year, €75 per year and €100 per year, in tabular form. [37185/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The estimated annual cost of increasing the carer's support grant by €25 per year, €50 per year, €75 per year and €100 per year, is set out in the table below.

Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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220. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the estimated cost to the Exchequer annually of increasing the weekly travel allowance under the carer's allowance means test from €15 to €20, to €25, to €30, to €35. [37186/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.7 billion this year.

The Carer’s Allowance scheme is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. In 2024 the expenditure on the Carer’s Allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.1 billion.

Data from July shows there were 97,130 recipients of Carer’s Allowance. Of that number, there were 28,269 availing of the weekly travel allowance, of which 3,548 were in receipt of a reduced payment. Any increase of the travel allowance would not affect those already in receipt of a full-rate payment.

It is not possible to provide the breakdowns requested by the Deputy. The travel allowance is applied as a disregard, along with the other relevant disregards, at the time of the individual’s application in order to determine that individual’s rate of payment.

However, if we were to assume that the 3,548 carers on reduced rate would now qualify for a full-rate payment due to any of the increases to the travel allowance, as proposed by the Deputy, the total cost of increasing the weekly travel allowance for this cohort from €15 would be €45.7 million per annum.

The above is based on the following assumptions:

• The calculation is based on all 3,548 reduced rate recipients receiving a full rate Carer’s Allowance of €248 per week (aged under 66 rate, caring for 1 person).
• The cost takes no account of the payment amounts those on a reduced rate are currently in receipt of.
• The cost takes no account of potential inflows. It is not known how many people who currently do not qualify would now qualify for a Carer’s Allowance payment as a result of an increase to the travel allowance disregard.