The means test for the carer’s allowance would be abolished under a Sinn Féin government, party leader Mary Lou McDonald has said.
The Dublin Central TD used her address to the party’s ardfheis in Athlone on Saturday to announce this significant change in policy, which was not included in Sinn Féin’s alternative budget when it was published on Thursday.
“Caring is work, done with love, saving the State billions. It’s unfair that carer’s allowance is means tested. I want to be very clear. In government, Sinn Féin would abolish the means test for carer’s allowance,” she said to sustained applause from the hall.
Extending the allowance to all the estimated 500,000 people who care for people in Irish society would cost hundreds of millions. Generally, those with incomes under €450 a week after tax can qualify for the allowance, worth €249 per week, although other criteria are taken into account.
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Estimates regarding the potential cost to the State of removing the means test vary. Family Carers’ Ireland has said the cost would be €390 million a year, while the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated a highest cost scenario of €450 million. However, the Department of Social Welfare estimates a base cost of €600 million and in some of its modelling says the figure could rise to between €880 million and €2 billion a year.
Ms McDonald also told delegates that, if elected to government, Sinn Féin would appoint a minister of State for reunification in the Department of An Taoiseach, who would work on preparing the ground for a referendum on a united Ireland.
In the course of the speech, she told delegates that Sinn Féin would offer a clear alternative to voters as a party of government.
“Workers and families cannot afford another five years of Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil running the show,” she said.
While asserting that Sinn Féin was a welcoming party which abhorred racism, she emphasised the party’s new policy that International Protection Accommodation Service “centres must not be located in working-class communities struggling to survive” as this was “not reasonable or fair”.
She said the party’s housing plan would end the housing crisis by building 300,000 homes over five years, including 125,000 social and affordable homes. Sinn Féin would offer families childcare for €10 a day, she said, and would also scrap the Universal Social Charge for those earning under €45,000.
Ms McDonald criticised Taoiseach Simon Harris for in 2017 promising the families of children with scoliosis and spina bifida that they would receive treatment within a short period of time. “He broke that promise,” she said, adding that Sinn Féin would also deliver a second accident and emergency facility for the Midwest region.
Turning to controversies over State spending on public projects, she focused on Mr Harris’s role with regard to the national children’s hospital when he was minister for health.
“Don’t mind his spin, the Taoiseach himself greenlighted the contract that’s costing you billions for the most expensive hospital in the world, presided over a security hut for €1.4 million, and the infamous bicycle shed, used €10 million of your money trying to stop us receiving €14 billion in Apple tax,” she said.
In her conclusion, Ms McDonald contended that the general election would offer voters a choice between a party offering “hope, and ambition for delivery,” and Government parties that stood for “vested interests, vulture funds and the cosy club”.
“If you are through with bad government, waste of public money, failure to deliver, if you believe in an Ireland where workers, families and communities come first, we want you to know that when the election comes, Sinn Féin is ready.”
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