Some 65 TDs and Senators from all political parties attended pre-budget presentations by the Carers' Association in Dublin yesterday. They heard calls for the carer's allowance to be increased to €250 a week, and for a rise in the respite grant to €2,880.
The latter would allow carers take statutory holiday entitlements of 20 days a year by covering the costs of temporary carers at €18 an hour for 160 hours of home care.
Carers' Association chief executive Enda Egan said that, according to the 2002 census, there were 148,754 family carers in Ireland, less thaa sixth of whom qualified for the current allowance of €180 a week.
He said that carers worked 3.5 million hours a week and, when compared to market-place costs of €700 a week for care, were saving the State €2.1 billion annually.
He called for full-time carers to be granted medical cards, and means tests applied to a carer's allowance should involve the carer's income alone.
The association's deputy chief executive, Catherine Cox, said that "to say the life of a carer is difficult is an understatement".
