Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 1 Jul 2003

Vol. 570 No. 2

Written Answers. - Health Board Allowances.

John Cregan

Ceist:

389 Mr. Cregan asked the Minister for Health and Children the situation in relation to carer's allowance for persons not eligible on means grounds; the progress which has been made towards granting carer's allowance on a needs agreement basis to those outside the current limit; if an annual respite care grant can be awarded to those not qualifying to provide a form of recognition of service; the extra tax allowance which can be provided to carers not qualifying for the carer's allowance; if the tax allowance is in addition to an allowance being received for caring for children; if assistance or recognition is available to carers of the elderly if outside the income limit; and the reason spouses' income is taken into account. [18400/03]

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Mr. Callely):

In relation to my own Department, in recognition of the valuable service rendered by informal family carers, additional financial allocations have been made available to the health boards and the Eastern Regional Health Authority, for the purpose of supplying specific help to such carers by way of respite and assistance in the home. The amounts so provided were €1.27 million in 1999, €1.27 million in 2000, €2.54 million in 2001 and €1.03 million in 2002. This amounts to a total of over €6 million in the period between 1999 and 2002. Many carers will have benefited from the developments in services for older people from 1997 to 2002.

Additional revenue funding for the development of services for older people, including nursing home subvention funding, increased significantly from €12.7 million in 1997 to over €87 million in 2002. Since 1997, additional funding of over €270 million has been provided for services for older people. This has resulted in the recruitment of over 1,000 additional staff. Between 1998 and 2001, over 550 additional beds have been provided in new community nursing units and over 1,250 day places per week have been provided in new day care centres. Included in these figures is additional funding of €7.5 million that was allocated for home help development in the period between 1999 and 2002 and €11.79 million that was allocated in respect of the same period for community supports for older people. All these provisions have substantially improved the position of carers. I understand that aspects of the Deputy's question relating to the carer's allowance and tax allowance are being answered in separate replies by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs and the Minister for Finance, respectively.