An annual grant for full-time carers of older or disabled people will be increased from €835 to €1,000 from June 1st and it will no longer be means-tested, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan has said.
The removal of means-testing means that 9,000 to 10,000 more carers will be eligible for the grant. People already receiving some form of carers' payment will get the grant automatically in June but full-time carers excluded from such payments because of their income will have to apply for it.
This grant allows carers to pay someone else to care for their patient if they want to take an occasional break. Mr Brennan estimated that more than 30,000 full-time carers would be entitled to the respite care grant.
The expanded respite care package is expected to cost €36 million.
From tomorrow, the Department of Social and Family Affairs will operate a freephone helpline (1800 690 590) to distribute application forms and answer queries about the scheme.
The Carers' Association has welcomed the extension of the scheme as "a step in the right direction" but urged the Government to produce a long-term strategy for carers.
Carers' Association chief executive Enda Egan welcomed the move because it was the first time the Government had offered anything to carers that was not means-tested.
"Now we would ask the Government to set out a long-term strategy for carers and the people they care for," he said.
He called on the Government to produce a three- to five-year plan committing itself to certain targets by certain deadlines.
Mr Egan encouraged people unsure about their eligibility for the grant to contact the Carers' Association freephone helpline at 1800 240724.
