'We provide a valuable service to the State': Carer says budget measures don't go far enough

Carer Lena Mulligan: 'I welcome the €12 increase, but it goes nowhere towards the work that carers do. Picture: Moya Nolan

A full-time carer who looks after a woman with disabilities said she was disappointed with the €12 increase in her carer’s allowance announced in the budget.

Lena Mulligan has provided support for her friend Carolyn Akintola for the past five years in her home in south Dublin.

She currently receives the carers allowance of €206 — she does not receive the maximum payment of €236 because she is means tested.

Ms Akintola, 59, is a wheelchair user and suffers from a rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome — which means her joints become dislocated regularly.

In a statement to the Dáil on budget day, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe announced a series of measures to help people working as carers.

They include a €12 increase, and a one-off payment of €400 in January 2024, and there will also be a €450 disregard for the carer’s allowance means test.

However, Ms Mulligan said the measures do not go far enough, and her client, Ms Akintola, said she believed carers should never be means tested.

“I am means tested because my husband works,” Ms Mulligan told the Irish Examiner. 

“I welcome the €12 increase, but it goes nowhere towards the work that carers do.

I consider myself lucky because some carers have a more intense role and for the work they do they get paid a pittance. It is an insult.

“We are earning that allowance. It’s a social protection payment but it must be hard-earned, and we provide a valuable service to the State."

Ms Mulligan is one of about 500,000 carers in the country, who are providing support for vulnerable people in their homes.

“Carolyn has an issue with her motoring skills so chopping things up would be important.

“I’d say I do around 35 to 40 hours a week and I do whatever needs to be done — shopping, cooking, and driving.

“Carolyn is like my family. If I go on holiday, she comes with us."

Ms Mulligan is also entitled to a carer’s support grant of €1,850, which is paid in June every year.

“We have a wheelchair-accessible van,” she said. 

“So that grant goes on petrol, maintenance, and insurance. We are very lucky to have that van, a lot of people with disabilities don’t and rely on public transport. The payment I receive every week goes on petrol to get to my client’s house.”

Ms Akintola said she was “very disappointed” the one-off disability grant of €500 given last year, was not “even mentioned in the budget”.

“I honestly thought we were moving in the right direction when it comes to people with disabilities.

“What happened last year was we got a one-off payment of €500, and we had called for it again this year.

“After all those years of campaigning, we thought we were on the right track, and we were going to build on it.

Carolyn Akintola: 'There needs to be more recognition of the amount of money it costs to be disabled, which is not our fault. Picture: Moya Nolan

“But there wasn’t a mention of additional costs for extra living payments. I do realise we can’t have everything, but I was very disappointed.

“We will be receiving a €200 once-off living-alone payment, and it will be very helpful.

“However, a person with disabilities has to shower more and have more heating on, and my electricity bill is around €300 per quarter.

I am really disappointed that the cost of being disabled, which is estimated to be around €8,700 to €12,300 every year, was completely ignored.

“I would like that conversation to be kept open. There was also no mention of therapies like physio, occupational therapy, speech, and language being more available.

“Overall, it is disappointing, we will get the €12 extra each week to our disability allowance payment, but there needs to be more recognition of the amount of money it costs to be disabled, which is not our fault."

There are about 1.1 million people in Ireland living with a disability.

John Dolan, chief executive of the Disability Federation Ireland, said the packages announced in Budget 2024 for people living with disabilities were “devastating”. 

“Along with other anti-poverty organisations, we had called for a €27.50 increase in core social protection rates to keep up with inflation and prevent a rise in inequality and poverty.

“The increase falls significantly short."