Joe O'Reilly urges tax exemption for carers' allowance
Joe O'Reilly called for carers allowance to be exempt from taxation, urging the leader to press the case with the Minister for Finance and the cabinet. He argued the state should celebrate carers and seek every budgetary opportunity to increase their allowance.
Main proposal
Joe O'Reilly proposed that carers allowance be removed from taxation, saying the payment should not be a taxable source and that the extraction of money from carers is wrong.
Rationale for exemption
He argued carers enable people to live in their own homes and save the state substantial sums by avoiding institutionalisation. Taxing the allowance, he said, reduces the practical benefit to carers who often leave paid work to provide full-time care.
Reference to revenue discussions
He mentioned recent discussions about the revenue commissioners flagging carers allowance into the future and used that context to press for an explicit exemption from taxation.
Appeal to leadership and finance ministers
He asked the leader to convey the view strongly to the Minister for Finance and the cabinet, calling for celebration of carers and for future budgets to look at increasing their allowance.
Personal perspective and moral case
Drawing on his own family experience and his wife's work, he described caring as an honorable, transformative role and urged policy that recognises and supports carers rather than diminishing their allowances through tax.
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In any public forum that I have the privilege of being in and being elected to over the years I've always promoted and supported the role of carers and that they give people the privilege of living in their own homes and where they're happiest in general and also in a purely clinical cold economic terms to save the state phenomenal monies in terms of the cost of institutionalisation and it's for that reason Lasker, Herlock and Leader that I want to suggest strongly in the light of the recent discussions around the revenue commissioners flagging carers allowance into the future I think carers allowance should be exempt from taxation I think that should be it should be exempt that stress a the actual quantum of monies would be small but irrespective of that that stress and that extraction of money should not be the case because if it is a source of taxation well it's minimizing the the benefit for the carer a lot of people leave potentially lucrative situations make difficult personal decisions to become full-time carers and it's a very honorable and it's a very wonderful thing to be doing and it's very transformative for the lives of the people from whom they care and I have through my own family and my wife's work I have a very intimate knowledge of this whole area and I'm asking you leader to convey strongly to the Minister for Finance and the cabinet that the view that we should not be taxing carers on their allowance in fact we should be celebrating them and looking to every budgetary opportunity to increase their allowance thank you
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