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'Guiding support for family carers'

General Election 2024 - Information For Family Carers 

As part of our commitment in our current Strategic Plan to ensuring our member organisations and other core stakeholders have access to up-to-date relevant information, this page was created to collate information relating to the Irish General Election 2024 and the commitments made by various political parties regarding family care. 

The purpose of this page is to not to advocate for any one party or candidate, but to focus on the statements made in relation to issues that are relevant for Ireland's family carers.

This page will be continuously updated as information becomes available. 

Please note, where points are made below they are directly quoting policy documents, statements made by official representatives or the party website. 

If you have any questions, or have any other comments to make please contact our Policy & Research Officer Zoe Hughes (zoe@carealliance.ie). 

We also encourage everyone to check that they are registered to vote by using CheckTheRegister.ie. 

We have created a quick view chart of 4 of the core issues for family carers in the election and which parties have made commitments in those key areas. You candownload a PDF of this chart here, or click the image below. 

Fine Gael

Party Website: https://www.finegael.ie/

Manifesto available to read here

 

 

Social Protection

  • Abolish the Means Test for Carers Allowance
  • Reform the Carer’s Allowance into a Family Carer Payment of €325 per week
  • Increase the Annual Carer’s Support Grant to €2,500
  • Increase the Half-Rate Carer’s Payment
  • Remove the current earnings limit of €450 per week for people in receipt of Carer’s Benefit and examine the feasibility of a Pay Related Carer’s Benefit payment
  • Increase the Home Carers Tax Credit to match the PAYE Tax Credit
  • Progressively increase core weekly payments in each Budget
  • Raise the State Pension to €350 over the lifetime of the next government
  • Lower the eligibility age for the Household Benefits package to include all pensioners aged 66 and over, down from age 70
  • Introduce a permanent Cost of Disability Support Payment of €500 and progressively increase this payment in each budget, similar to the Carer’s Support Grant
  • Reform the Disability Allowance Payment and remove anomalies in the current means test for the payment. We will increase the weekly payment by €12 each year bringing it up to at least €300 per week over the lifetime of the next Government
  • Increase the monthly Domiciliary Care Allowance
  • Raise Disability Allowance income disregards
  • Increase the Disability Allowance Capital Disregard
  • Initiate a comprehensive review of means tests

Health

  • Extend free healthcare for u18s
  • Recruit additional doctors, nurses, dentists and health and social care professionals, and create a plan to ensure adequate staffing across acute, primary, and community care, considering population and demographic changes, new clinical programmes and models of care, and reducing reliance on agency staff and overtime
  • Work to decrease healthcare costs, including capping monthly costs for drugs and medicines. Undertake a full eligibility review and comparison with European norms to drive down costs
  • Plan for the implementation of lung, prostate, and gastric cancer screenings
  • Develop and implement a National Brain Health Strategy to improve brain health and reduce dementia incidence
  • Expand the Structured Chronic Disease Management Programme
  • Increase the number of Primary Care Centres to provide local care, offering an alternative to hospitals for managing many health conditions
  • Ensure a full complement of staff in the Enhanced Community Care Programme
  • Launch a national patient app
  • Implement shared care records
  • Expand virtual care initiatives
  • Lower the maximum monthly cost of prescription drugs and medicines to €50 and abolish prescription charges
  • Increase medical card income limits
  • Expand hospital bed capacity
  • Provide community and critical care beds
  • Resource the Paediatric Spinal Surgery Management Unit
  • Expand screening age ranges for cancer screening
  • Implement the Model of Care for Psycho-Oncology for patients aged 0-24
  • Enhance existing healthcare strategies
  • Publish a new National Rare Disease Plan
  • Resource the National Strategy for Accelerating Genetic and Genomic Medicine
  • Resource the model of care for dementia to improve assessment, treatment, care and support for people with dementia and their families.
  • Develop a National Dementia Registry to map services, identify need and ensure equitable access
  • Bolster the hospice network and implement the new National Adult Palliative Care Policy to improve services and supports.
  • We will investigate new methods for earlier reimbursement of certain treatments, including early access schemes for rare diseases
  • Implementing the Mazars Review recommendations to ensure that the end-to-end approval process is effectively resourced to support the HSE drug reimbursement process
  • Increasing resources for clinical trials

Mental Health

  • Prioritise the enactment of the Mental Health Bill 2024 (misnamed in manifesto as of 19/11/2024 as the ‘Mental Health Bill 2004’)
  • Continue to hire mental health professionals, particularly in community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and expand psychology assistant posts enhancing the capacity of primary care psychology services
  • Fully implement ‘Sharing the Vision’
  • Develop early intervention programmes for conditions such as psychosis, eating disorders, ADHD, and dual diagnoses
  • Create a central referral mechanism to simplify referrals to community paediatric services, including CAMHS
  • Expand eating disorder teams
  • Examine and implement targeted supports for children with autism experiencing mental health challenges
  • Ensure a dedicated national lead for mental health

Disability

  • Committed to publishing a new National Disability Strategy that adopts a whole-of-government approach and advances the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
  • Provide funding for private assessments of need for long waiting families and introduce a similar initiative to access therapies and mental health supports, while legislating for the National Treatment Purchase Fund to increase access in the longer term
  • Boost access for children with disabilities and disadvantaged families to the access and inclusion model and the equal start programme
  • Update the Disability Act
  • Build inclusive education models
  • Implement recommendations from the review of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act to improve educational access for children with special needs.
  • Develop a dedicated therapy service for students in all special schools and extend over time to special classes within mainstream schools
  • Introduce a common application process at the primary level for children with additional needs
  • Review and improve transition supports, including career guidance in special schools
  • Implement a multi-year capital programme to provide early accommodation for special classes and special schools
  • Open more special classes and schools. In 2025, open five new special schools to support children with complex needs.
  • Provide Early Intervention Services
  • Increase funding to allow more schools to offer Summer Programmes for students with special needs
  • Consider additional time during State exams for students with special educational needs and ensure that those who use assistive technology can do so in exams.
  • Develop a curriculum for Irish Sign Language for primary and post-primary students, including a standalone Leaving Cert subject
  • Expand training for teachers to include essential therapy supports
  • Increase the availability of training for schools opening new special classes
  • Build Employment Pathways for students with disabilities
  • Create a Disability Fund for Tertiary Students
  • Increase Path 4 Courses integrating students with intellectual disabilities into the student body, with access to all supports including SUSI
  • Establish a consistent system for Personal Assistants in third-level Institutions
  • Adopt a cross-government approach to raise sports participation among people with disabilities, closing the current 20% gap with the general population
  • Expand support for para-sports and special-needs programmes by providing grants to clubs that demonstrate inclusive policies and facilities, ensuring people with disabilities have equal access to participate and excel in sports
  • Increase the number of Dietitians, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Social Workers and  Speech & Language Therapists to enhance support for individuals with disabilities.
  • Provide new residential placements
  • Increase the availability of day service places for school leavers and those graduating from Rehabilitative Training
  • Increase respite services, including the introduction of alternative respite options to better support families
  • Increase the number of new personal assistant hours and disability home support hours each year, alongside increasing intensive support packages
  • Implement the Autism Innovation Strategy
  • Promote the establishment of support groups in cities, towns, and villages for people with disabilities, including those with Autism and their families
  • Ensure there are Autism-One-Stop_shops in every CHO to provide information and direct support
  • Prioritise the European Disability Card
  • Examine the criteria for the Primary Medical Certificate, as well as the introduction of a grant scheme for necessary vehicle adaptations.
  • Support the Decision Support Service and full implementation of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015.
  • Simplify Power of Attorney Applications
  • Implement Congregated Settings Strategy

Older People

  • Appoint a Commissioner for Positive Ageing
  • Appoint a standalone Minister of State for Older People
  • Promote physical activity for older adults
  • Create a regulated home care scheme to ensure fair access to high-quality homecare services
  • Ensure long-term care is timely, comprehensive and affordable
  • Examine and enhance the mix of professional care options, including homecare, community-based care, independent living options and residential care ranging from family-owned and operated care homes to public and private care homes
  • Continue to increase funding to the Meals on Wheels Network and develop a plan to enable supported providers in every town in the country and investment in key equipment such as ovens and delivery vans
  • Keep the waiting list for the Fair Deal Scheme at four weeks
  • Deliver more home support hours each year, and increase the number of hours for individuals with dementia
  • Maintain and expand day centres
  • Publish and implement the Commission on Care for Older People report
  • Implement Ombudsman ‘Wasted Lives’ Report

Housing/Infrastructure

  • Increase the value of Housing Adaptation Grants: Proceed with a 30% increase in the grant limits and a 25% increase in the income thresholds for the Housing Adaptation Grants for Older People and People with a Disability Scheme
  • Mandate local authorities to find suitable sites for housing specifically designed for older adults, ensuring accessible options within local communities
  • Extend schemes to help households with chronic health conditions install solar panels and restore the Warmth and Wellbeing scheme for low-income individuals with chronic respiratory conditions
  • Assess the feasibility of a retrofit financing model for older adults, enabling them to benefit from reduced bills with costs settled by their estate
  • Extend the free travel pass to children with disabilities (in receipt of Domiciliary Care Allowance)

Other

  • Increase support for carers by providing training, establish clearer pathways to services, improve access to respite care, and fully fund the Carer’s Guarantee
  • Transfer the Migration and Integration functions back to the Department of Justice so that children will be the focus of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability and Youth
  • Fine Gael will retain the Cabinet Committee on Children, Disability and Education

 

 

Fianna Fail

Party Website: https://www.fiannafail.ie/

Manifesto available to read here

Social Protection

  • Allocate a minimum of €600m to increase the income disregards to qualify for the Carer’s Allowance, with a view to abolishing the means test for this payment over the term of Government.
  • Ensure that on reaching pension age carers can retain the rate at which they are paid their Carers Allowance, and concurrently receive the State Pension.
  • Provide full-rate Carer’s Allowance for those caring for two individuals and a Half-Rate Carer’s Allowance for any additional people.
  • Increase the annual Carer’s Support Grant to €2,500.
  • Annually increase the specific and targeted personal tax credits as advanced in Budget 2025 to support families, carers, blind people, dependent relatives, and those with additional needs
  • Adjust the means test for entitlements for those with a disability if inheritance is received to ensure we protect the baseline social protection and medical supports.
  • Continue to reform means testing in social welfare schemes to address anomalies and create greater fairness in the system.
  • Increase core welfare rates by at least €12 annually.
  • Increase the State pension to at least €350 per week and maintain the retirement age at 66.
  • Increase the Living Alone Allowance.
  • Increase the Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Pension, the Blind Pension and the Invalidity Pension.
  • Protect the Free Travel Pass.
  • Put the Disability Support Grant on a permanent footing and increase it incrementally.
  • Reform the Disability Allowance into a new Independent Living Allowance.

Health

  • Further reduce waiting times, targeting all patients to be seen within the agreed 10 to 12 week targets.
  • Fund a new targeted waiting list plan to further reduce waiting times for patients, and to speed up access to therapies.
  • Open 4,000 more hospital beds
  • Ensure our children’s hospitals have enough capacity to quickly and safely treat children with scoliosis and spina bifida.
  • Allocate €35m in ringfenced additional annual funding to cancer services.
  • Continue to invest in local cancer support groups, providing essential supports to those living with and beyond cancer.
  • Design a Statutory homecare scheme to enable people who want to stay in their own home to do so for as long as possible.
  • Open another 100 enhanced primary care centres.
  • Continue to expand our community care teams.
  • Continue to invest in palliative care to achieve full national coverage of hospice and community services.
  • Develop a new national policy on palliative care for children and increase funding to children’s hospice care.
  • Extend Free GP Care to all children aged 12 and under.
  • Reduce the Drug Payment Scheme monthly maximum payment from €80 to €40 over the next five years.
  • Develop a new National Rehabilitation Strategy.
  • Launch and implement the new National Rare Disease Plan, improving access to Orphan Medicines.
  • Develop a new National Cardiovascular Policy and establish a dedicated programme, based on the success of the National Cancer Control Programme (NCCP).

Mental Health

  • Continue to recruit staff, both nationally and internationally, to meet the needs of our increasing population.
  • Extend the funding of the HSE Assistant Psychologist pilot programme so more patients get support.
  • Continue to resource CAMHS teams to reduce waiting lists.
  • Continue to implement the ‘No Wrong Door’ admissions policy nationwide, ensuring proper clinical triage for young people.
  • Establish targeted supports for children with autism experiencing mental health challenges.
  • Enhance youth mental health services for those up to age 25, focusing on smoother transitions from CAMHS to adult services.
  • Increase staffing in under-18 dual diagnosis services to better treat young people with mental health and substance abuse issues.
  • Legislate to regulate CAMHS.
  • Develop a new care model for HSE Primary Care Psychology to expedite services for young people with less complex issues.
  • Extend free primary care counselling to GP card holders.
  • Fund the national mental health policy Sharing the Vision.
  • Expand specialist services for eating disorders, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, early psychosis intervention, self-harm, and others.
  • Increase acute psychiatric bed provision to the recommended 25 per 100,000 population.
  • Invest in expanding the Enhanced Community Care Programme and rolling out Community Health Networks.
  • Assess the ongoing Mental Health pilots to ensure that students experiencing mental health challenges can receive the support they need in school.

Older People & Dementia

  • Increase funding for the national Meals on Wheels network.
  • Increase the rollout of telehealth across all health regions to offer remote counselling and mental health consultations for older people.
  • Deliver more home support hours.
  • Increase home care hours by 1 million hours annually.
  • Increase funding for the Fair Deal Scheme in line with population growth.
  • Build more public nursing home beds.
  • Establish 20 new dementia-specific day care centres using existing facilities.
  • Include dementia specific provision across all new Community Nursing Hospitals.
  • Increase ringfenced home care hours, and funding for Dementia Intensive Home Care Packages.
  • Double funding for dementia day care at home for those unable to attend a day centre.
  • Double the number of dementia advisers.
  • Rollout more Memory Assessment Support Services teams.
  • Double the rollout of early age dementia supports, including activity clubs.
  • Fund mental health supports across all Integrated Care Programme for Older People (ICPOP) teams, making it easier for older people to access services locally.
  • Invest in social programmes and befriending services to address isolation.

Disability

  • Extend the AIM programme supports to all children with a disability aged 0 to 3-year-olds in childcare, building on the existent provision for 3 to 6-year-olds.
  • Increase investment in Adult Day Services
  • Introduce EU Disability Awareness Cards, ensuring that holders are entitled to any preferential treatment that applies in any member state.
  • Allow people with disabilities to work more hours without risking their social protection payments.
  • Establish a Disabled Persons’ Organisation (DPO) Forum for collaborative engagement on policy and legislation development.
  • Rollout disability training for all Intreo staff
  • Continue to work towards the goals outlined in the Disability Capacity Review.
  • Increase Sport Ireland Core Funding for sports clubs to increase the participation levels by people with disabilities.
  • Establish a National Safeguarding Body to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of vulnerable adults
  • Establish public sensory rooms in new libraries.
  • Complete the national rollout of Community Neuro-Rehabilitation Teams.
  • Develop more regional inpatient rehabilitation beds.
  • Implement community-based multidisciplinary rehabilitation services in every CHO area.
  • Raise the number of neurology nurse specialists.
  • Increase the number of consultant neurologists.
  • Establish an annual Children’s Therapies Grant Fund to support organisations and community groups to provide evidence-based therapies such as equine/dog therapy.
  • Reinstate on-site therapists to Special Schools.
  • Radically improve accessibility and effectiveness of therapy services through providing on-site support to children in special classes within mainstream schools.
  • Recruit additional therapy clinicians and Therapy Assistants.
  • Support families who are waiting too long for an Assessment of Needs to procure assessments privately.
  • Double the number of Regional Assessment Hubs.
  • Invest at least €15m more annually in respite services.
  • Increase funding for the Home Support Emergency Respite Scheme for unpaid carers in need of urgent respite.
  • Continue to support respite houses.
  • Enhance alternative respite options, including home sharing, after-school clubs, weekend breaks, and tea-time respite.
  • Provide annual funding to increase personal assistance hours by at least an additional 20,000 hours per year.
  • Rollout Personalised Budgets nationally.
  • Continue work to end the practice of placing young people with disabilities in nursing homes.
  • Expand the role of Disability Access Officers in Local Authorities.
  • Work with the Law Society to create a solicitor’s portal to simplify enduring Power of Attorney applications.
  • Establish a Centre for Autism/ Neurodivergent Services tasked with providing supports for children and adults with autism, from diagnosis and assessment to therapy and support groups.
  • Build on the Autism Innovation Strategy by co-developing initiatives with people with autism to address service gaps for the neurodivergent population.
  • Expand the coverage of ‘Autism One Stop Shops’ in all regional health areas.
  • Create a public pathway for neuro affirmative assessments and interventions for adults with autism.
  • Increase the Sensory Initiatives Grant for communities to develop sensory gardens, hubs and spaces.
  • Introduce an Assistive Technology Passport, a personal record of all of the relevant information about an individual’s requirement for Assistive Technology.
  • Roll out the first national Therapy Service in Education, with therapists providing therapies in schools. We will start with special schools, special classes and DEIS Plus schools.
  • Continue to hire more special education teachers and special needs assistants to ensure that every student receives the support they need.
  • Expand the availability of early intervention classes, under the remit of the Department of Education, so that those children in need of an early intervention can access it in their local school.
  • Continue to expand the free-of charge Summer Programme for students with special educational needs.
  • Ensure that schools in every community have special classes so that all students can attend local schools.
  • Continue the establishment of new special schools across the country.
  • Introduce a national centralized application system for children applying for a place in a special school or in a special class within a mainstream school.
  • Reform the Drumcondra Tests which are used to gauge student learning to include assessments for dyslexia.
  • Complete the Review of the Education of Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and introduce necessary legislative changes to ensure that it meets the needs of students.
  • Increase the number of post-primary school places for children with ASD.
  • Implement a mandatory disability education module during teacher training, along with a mandatory placement in a special class or school for all student teachers.
  • Boost the Fund for Students with Disabilities.
  • Publish and implement a new National Disability Strategy.
  • Advance the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
  • Eliminate the employment provision that permits pay reductions based on disability.

Housing/Infrastructure

  • Cap all remaining hospital car parking charges that exceed €10 per day.
  • Continue to increase the Housing Adaptation Grant and broaden eligibility.
  • Expand the Travel Assistance Scheme nationally.
  • Launch an annual vehicle upgrade initiative for disability service providers.
  • Extend the Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Taxi Grant Scheme.
  • Reduce the 24-hour notice requirement for disabled users of rail services.
  • Double the Housing Adaptation Grant.
  • Support the further development of the Dementia Friendly Towns initiative.

Labour

Party Website: https://labour.ie/

Manifesto available here

Social Protection

  • Phase out the Carer’s Allowance income disregard as part of the development of a new Family Carer Payment.
  • Progressively increase the half rate Carer’s Allowance in recognition of the value of care work and as part of the systemic change to a participation income.
  • Remove the restrictive means test, and the low rate of payment which is not sufficient to meet the financial needs of those caring for dependents.
  • Increase the number of hours a Carer can work or study per week to provide for more flexibility.
  • Increase the Carer’s Support Grant up to €2,500 and ensure all those in receipt of it are entitled to Carer’s Allowance.
  • Address anomalies with Carer’s Benefit such as the €450 earnings limit and introduce a pay-related Carer’s Benefit.
  • Review the Home Carer and Dependent Relative tax credits to address impacts on single people and those caring for a nonchild relative.
  • Reform the application and appeals process for Domiciliary Care Allowance to make it fit for purpose and provide for payment increases.
  • Fully fund the Carer’s Guarantee and review the long-term carers contribution scheme to identify cohorts that have been excluded.
  • Review the impact of the current qualifying criteria for the State Contributory Pension on women and carers to ensure their lifelong contribution to society is fully recognised.
  • Provide for increases in the Living Alone Allowance
  • Protect the free travel scheme.
  • Reform disability payments to provide for a single, taxable benefit removing the cumbersome income disregard system in line with a social model of disability.
  • Introduce a cost of disability payment in their first budget, and a discretionary medical card for all people with disabilities who need it, based on medical need not income.
  • Ensure that increases in the State pension and other social welfare payments are increased at least in line with the cost of living

Health

  • Extend free GP care to all
  • Labour will establish a Sláintecare Transition Fund starting with an initial €1 billion to drive reform, and ringfence the Universal Social Charge as a Health contribution
  • Invest more to build enough new acute care and step-down beds
  • Expand public nursing home care
  • Support the Community Pharmacy Model, and we will introduce a Minor Ailment Scheme and expand community prescribing
  • Fund an extra 300 acute beds per year above existing levels
  • Reduce the Drug Payment Threshold to €50/month
  • Phase out prescription charges for medical card holders
  • Reduce car parking charges by half at hospitals and waive these for patients attending for continuous treatments such as cancer patients.
  • Expand provision of medical cards, increasing income limits annually in line with wage growth, including to anyone with a serious disability
  • Develop a long-term plan to phase in full free medical cover for all patients not covered by private health insurance.
  • Deliver new development and multi-annual funding for the National Cancer Strategy every year
  • Expand existing screening services for BreastCheck from 45 to 74, and BowelCheck from 50 to 74.
  • Develop new cancer screening programmes for lung, prostate and gastric cancers and assess screening proposals for ovarian and uterine cancers
  • Provide automatic medical cards for cancer patients
  • Develop a new national cardiovascular policy
  • Fully fund and implement the Dementia model of care over the next five years and prioritise brain health
  • Invest in improved palliative care and hospices, and in particular palliative care services for children with life limiting conditions
  • Set up a taskforce to develop a ten-year National Diabetes Strategy and fund increased free access to continuous glucose monitors.
  • Improve multiple sclerosis services and resource a National Care Centre.
  • Implement a Respite Strategy to guarantee access for all family carers with a comprehensive system to map demand, and the range of capacity available.

Disability

  • Introduce a new, resourced Comprehensive Employment Strategy for people with disabilities
  • Introduce an Autism Guarantee to secure an appropriate school place for every child and develop a fully inclusive model of education that vindicates the right to education for all children across the range of disabilities and complies with the UNCRPD and UNCRC.
  • Update the EPSEN Act and introduce a right to assessment of educational needs and individual education plans.
  • Provide sufficient current and capital funding to meet demand for special school places and classes integrated in mainstream schools and ensure school designs are fully accessible and take sensory processing into account.
  • Change the resource allocation model for special education teachers to ensure greater information on complex needs is taken into account.
  • Expand the Educational Therapy Support Service through the NCSE for more in school therapists and provide better training for teachers during their degrees.
  • Undertake an Autism Audit of all schools and provide Autism CPD training to school staff to ensure that mainstream schools can facilitate the inclusion of children with Autism to the greatest extent possible.
  • Increase funding for the Summer Programme so that no child with additional needs is left without a place.
  • Increase resources for the Fund for Students with Disabilities and Student Assistance Fund and widen eligibility.
  • Deliver a new National Disability Strategy and strengthen the National Disability Authority.
  • Establish a new office of the Disability Ombudsman to provide an accessible method to bring complaints about rights violations.
  • Strengthen and adequately fund the National Advocacy Service and place it on a statutory footing.
  • Carry out an immediate review of the Action Plan funding in place for 2025 to ensure essential services covering residential care, day services, PA services and home support, neurorehabilitation, respite care, and therapy services including Children’s Disability Network Teams are resourced as required.
  • Implement the Neurorehabilitation Strategy and fully staff community teams in each health region.
  • Develop an adult neurodiversity diagnosis and support service pathway, develop new service models, and focus on integration with mainstream health services and community supports.
  • Invest in decongregation and ensure individuals under 65 are moved out of nursing homes.
  • Continue the work of the Autism Innovation Strategy and implement the recommendations of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism.
  • Provide dedicated increased funding for disability sporting organisations, Special Olympics Ireland, and the Paralympics, and ensure funding for autism friendly spaces in our public sporting and recreational facilities.

Mental Health

  • Resource and implement the national mental health strategy Sharing the Vision.
  • Invest in the provision of inpatient mental health units and facilities.
  • Meet the Sláintecare commitment to increase funding to 10% of the health budget and move towards a preventative approach.
  • Seek a Minister of State for Mental Health and Wellbeing within the Department of Health
  • Put in place a HSE National Lead for Mental Health and Regional Mental Health Leads for each of the health regions.
  • Invest in early intervention and prevention services through the community and voluntary sector, with the provision of multiannual and sustainable funding to allow for better service planning.
  • Increase funding for early intervention programmes to ensure the availability of timely support, evidence-based interventions, and patient-centred care.
  • Strengthen the Mental Health Bill 2024, including further strengthening family involvement in the provision of care
  • Give independent regulatory oversight of CAMHS to the Mental Health Commission.
  • Integrate services so that children and young people can move seamlessly between services in a timely manner and according to their needs.
  • Ensure that every child can access a mental health assessment in a time of crisis by properly trained and supported staff in a safe and suitable environment.
  • Significantly expand access to talk-therapies, with a focus on direct provision through the HSE
  • Significantly expand the number of eating disorder beds

Older People

  • Legislate for a statutory home support service and strong regulatory framework.
  • Reorientate policy to public provision of home support and publish annual targets to progressively increase the proportion of home support hours provided directly by the HSE.
  • Ensure enough funding is in place to meet demand for home support and directly hire more health care support assistants in the HSE.
  • Put in place a long-term plan to increase the provision of public long term residential care by investing in new community nursing homes.
  • Support the expansion of alternative models of long-term care such as the Housing with Supports scheme.
  • Reform the Fair Deal scheme to give people the option of remaining in their home, with the State contributing to their care costs.
  • Provide ongoing funding to the Fair Deal scheme to meet demographic needs whilealso expanding public provision.
  • Fund the work of the Commission on Care and appoint a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing.
  • Relaunch the National Positive Ageing Strategy with an implementation plan and new funding.
  • Launch a National Reablement Scheme to support older people who have been hospitalised to return to living in their own homes and communities.
  • Develop an action plan to combat isolation and loneliness among older people, resource the Loneliness Taskforce and invest more in social prescribing.
  • Establish a National Planning Unit for Care to oversee all aspects of care planning and implementation, and the de-privatisation of care services

Housing/ Infrastructure

  • Increase the income limits and maximum award for the Housing Aid for Older People Grant in line with inflation so that more older people who require adaptations can remain in their own home.
  • Expand the Housing with Supports model and ringfence a proportion of social housing for older people with adherence to universal design principles so that housing is age appropriate.
  • Develop a voluntary national ‘rightsizing’ scheme to support people who want to move to more age-friendly housing within their own community.
  • Fully implement the National Housing Strategy for Disabled people, and ringfence 10% of social and affordable housing for people with disabilities with universal design standards and fully wheelchair accessible housing.
  • Increase the maximum awards under the Housing Adaptation Grant to €60,000
  • Replace the Mobility Allowance and Motorised Transport Grant with a Transport Support Scheme.
  • Expand the Dublin Bus Travel Assistance Scheme nationally to support people learning to travel independently.
  • Review the stringent regulations governing the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passengers tax relief scheme and introduce a new Transport Support Scheme.
  • Maintain the free travel scheme, and ensure it is available on all licensed bus services.
  • Develop and implement a national strategy for age-friendly villages, and bespoke housing for older people in larger towns and suburbs.
  • Expand the Housing with Supports model as a nursing home alternative, with onsite staff support to allow older people live with dignity and independence.

Other

  • Ensure all legislation and budgets are disability and equality proofed.

 

The Green Party

Party Website: https://www.greenparty.ie/

Manifesto available to read here. 

Social Protection

  • Increase social welfare payments in line with earnings and inflation.
  • Reform the social welfare system so that eligibility for social assistance payments is determined by income, not by employment status, guaranteeing a basic income for everyone
  • Building on the basic income for artists trial, bring in a non-means-tested basic income for all carers.
  • Over the term of Government, increase the Home Carer’s Tax Credit to €4,000 and make it available to unmarried but cohabiting parents.
  • Recognising the challenges faced by people with disabilities and the value of care in Irish society, prioritise increases to Disability Allowance and Carer’s Allowance in annual budget negotiations. This will include introducing a new €50 weekly cost-of-disability payment.
  • Provide an annual payment of €3,800 for every parent of a child with a severe disability, by replacing the existing Incapacitated Child Tax Credit with a refundable Child and Adolescent Disability Tax Credit
  • We will establish a centralised means-testing agency to determine eligibility for supports across a range of sectors, including social protection, housing assistance payments, medical and GP visit cards, the National Childcare Scheme, cost rental housing, the Warmer Homes Scheme, SUSI grants for students, and legal aid.
  • Extend Illness Benefit to the self-employed.
  • Review the Long-Term Illness Scheme
  • Tackle the persistent levels of poverty experienced by people with disabilities by introducing a Cost of Disability payment of €50 a week.
  • Continue to increase the Living Alone Allowance on an annual basis.

Disability

  • Increase hours under the Access and Inclusion Model (AIM) to ensure all children with disabilities can access early years education.
  • Develop an updated national play policy with particular focus on creating inclusive play spaces for girls and children with disabilities.
  • Increase capital investment for the Department of Education to provide for new primary and secondary schools, and new ASD/special education classes attached to mainstream schools.
  • Ensure better planning of the need for ASD/special education classes at primary and secondary level and for special schools. We will remove any barriers between state bodies and agencies that act as a barrier to this.
  • Fund an SNA in every classroom with a child who has additional needs.
  • Complete the review of the Education for Persons with a Special Educational Needs Act 2004.
  • Improve the provision of special education training within teacher training courses at both primary and secondary level and increase places on specialist courses.
  • Enhance the ability of the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to directly support teachers working in special schools and ASD/special education classes.
  • Working with the HSE, ensure that additional therapeutic interventions supporting education and health outcomes are provided by children’s disability network teams onsite in all special schools.
  • Streamlining and improving access to mobility aids, adaptive wheelchairs and non-standard cycles for a rights-based approach to mobility independence.
  • Develop sporting infrastructure that is accessible for all and work to improve access to sporting infrastructure for those with disabilities via the Changing Places and other schemes.
  • Review the Disability Act 2005, with a focus on the assessment of need process to streamline access to health and education supports, and to incorporate disabilities that are not currently recognised such foetal alcohol syndrome and severe ADHD (with comorbidities).
  • Implement the new National Disability Strategy and ensure through the Cabinet Subcommittee on Children and Disability that all Government departments are fully implementing assigned actions under the mainstreaming approach adopted in the strategy.
  • Implement a ten-year workforce strategy for disability, indicating the number of health and social care professionals needed across the disability sector. We will work with higher and further education institutes to additionally increase the number of places in courses for each of these professions. We will recognise and incorporate the role of assistant therapist grades.
  • Increase funding by 25% in the first year and by 15% in every subsequent year for community-based disability services in line with the Action Plan for Disability Services.
  • Establish a Disability Information and Support Centre in every Community Health Organisation as a one-stop-shop for people with disabilities and their families seeking to engage with public services. The centre will provide support and information relating to education, healthcare, respite, social protection and therapeutic services.
  • We will put the Autism Innovation Strategy on statutory footing, incorporating recommendations from the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism’s report and the Same Chance report.
  • Ensure that the HSE, private service providers and the Department of Education collate all
  • relevant data on autism. We will request that the CSO include a question on autism in the next census.
  • End the situation whereby children with dual diagnoses who experience both mental health issues and have a disability such as autism are denied access to mental health services.
  • Seek to end the practice of under-65s being placed in nursing homes.
  • Support independence among people with a disability by increasing the number of personal assistant hours by 300,000 per year.
  • Tackle the persistent levels of poverty experienced by people with disabilities by introducing a Cost of Disability of €50 a week
  • Complete and evaluate the personalised budgeting pilot and make decisions about further implementation of a personalised budgeting policy.
  • Introduce a new monthly subsidy for people who are blind or vision impaired to cover taxis and other private travel expenses and expand the current pilot on mobility and orientation in schools across the country.

Mental Health

  • Building on pilot schemes initiated by this Government, ensure that every child has access to mental health supports by developing and expanding mental health teams that work across several schools.
  • Appoint a national mental health champion within the HSE.
  • Invest heavily in suicide and self-harm prevention services.
  • Implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
  • Pass an amended version of the Mental Health Bill.
  • Ensure HSE regional authorities’ staffing and capital investment plans are aligned with national mental health policies.
  • Support NGOs such as Jigsaw that take an early intervention approach to mental health services.
  • Fund additional trainee psychological posts across professional doctoral programmes to meet current and future demand for experienced professionals in our health services.
  • Appoint a Super-Junior Minister with responsibility for reducing loneliness and improving social connectivity.
  • Recognise loneliness as a reason for home help.
  • Focus on the groups most affected by loneliness – the young and the elderly – by supporting mental health teams in schools and services such as ALONE.

Housing/infrastructure

  • Introduce an equity release scheme for retrofitting so that older people can live in warm homes.
  • Adopting an access-for-all approach to transport and spatial planning, urban design and the built environment.
  • Expanding Dublin City Council’s ‘continuous footpaths’ pilot, ensuring pedestrians can move along without a drop in pavement height.
  • Enforcing of disability parking rules, providing additional disabled car parking spaces, and ensuring access to towns and villages to those who need it.
  • Support and fund Approved Housing Bodies that provide tailored housing solutions to people with disabilities.
  • Raise the upper limit on the housing adaptation grant to match construction cost inflation.
  • Require one-fifth of new housing developments to meet universal design standards, ensuring appropriate housing options for older people and those with disabilities.

Older People

  • Support community centres in facilitating regular meetings for over-65s groups.
  • Introduce a statutory support scheme for home support services.

Health

  • Fund the Carers’ Guarantee, implementing a statutory right to the home support scheme and to respite care and improving the coordination of healthcare, employment and employment services.
  • Roll out a comprehensive e-health strategy, starting with a digital system for prescriptions and culminating in a nationwide programme covering primary care, elective hospitals, acute hospitals, and emergency services.
  • Deliver the National Genetics and Genomics Strategy, with a specific focus on staffing.
  • Ensure the Department of Health publishes an annual HSE national workforce plan and a review of the use of agency staff.
  • Expand capacity in acute healthcare settings by developing new elective hospitals and surgical hubs in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford, and Dublin.
  • Deliver on the commitment that no child should be on the scoliosis waiting list for more than four months and create a multiyear action plan for urgent and continued care for patients.
  • Ensure ring-fenced, multiyear funding for the National Cancer Strategy from the first Budget introduced by the new Government.
  • Enhance community-based service provision to care for more people with palliative care needs at home and expand out of hours palliative care provision in the community. We will ensure that each region has access to sufficient Level 3 Hospice beds. We will develop, fund, and implement a new national policy on palliative care for children with life-limiting conditions.
  • Expand the GP visit card to all children under the age of 11.
  • Improve the integration of different levels of healthcare following the establishment of HSE regions, aiming to alleviate pressure on acute services by boosting primary care and training more GPs.
  • Optimise supports to GPs in growing new practices by establishing a regionally focused taskforce to consider registration waiting times for GP services. We will support expansion of the public health service, including recruitment of public health nurses.
  • We will introduce legislation which allows for assisted dying in Ireland, based on the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying. This will only apply where a terminally ill, mentally competent adult makes the decision of their own free will, within strict legal safeguards.
  • Collaborate with schools to identify longterm and undiagnosed conditions.

Other

  • Create new Super-Junior Ministries including;
  • Minister of State for Wellbeing, Mental Health and Loneliness – across the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Department of Health and Wellbeing; and the Department of Rural and Community Development.
  • Government Chief Whip and Minister of State for Disability across the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the Departments of Education and Higher Education; and the Department of Health and Wellbeing.
  • Publish an updated National Carers Strategy to provide clarity on the Government’s approach to carer Government’s approach to carers across departments.

Social Democrats

Party Website: https://www.socialdemocrats.ie/

Manifesto available here

 

 

Social Protection

  • Abolish the means test for Carer’s Allowance.
  • Ensure that the rate of Carer’s Allowance is set at a level that reflects the work carried out by carers and the contribution that they make to society.
  • Overhaul the outdated means-tested Carer’s Allowance scheme and work towards a more equitable and gender-balanced Family Carer Payment
  • Continue to develop the supports and services available to family carers throughout the country, including with adjustments to the Carer’s Support Grant, Domiciliary Care Allowance, Home Carer Tax Credit, and other policy levers.
  • Implement a weekly Cost of Disability payment.
  • Set the Fuel Allowance at a level that better reflects the cost to vulnerable households of heating their home.
  • Benchmark our social protection system to the cost of a Minimum Essential Standard of Living
  • Link the State Pension to at least 34 per cent of the average wage.

Health

  • Fully implement the Sláintecare programme within the term of the next government.
  • Target an additional 5,000 extra hospital beds by 2030
  • Reduce and remove charges for access to all primary care, including GPs, public health nurses, therapies and medicines.
  • The fairer allocation of resources across the regions based on objective health need, ending the post code service lottery. This must include ensuring all people have equal access to specialist services, particularly cancer and cardiovascular treatments, and are not disadvantaged by distance of travel for such services.
  • Invest in existing community infrastructure such as supports for community pharmacists
  • Reducing prescription charges for patients; all prescription charges 50c with a cap of €5 per month.
  • Reduce the Drug Payment Scheme maximum payment to €60 per month.
  • Increase supports for sufferers of Multiple Sclerosis, including sustainable funding for national physiotherapy services for people with MS and other neurological conditions
  • Set up a Taskforce to develop a 10-Year National Diabetes Strategy
  • Adequately fund chronic care programmes such as for arthritis, asthma and EB.
  • Cap car parking charges for patients undergoing hospital treatment.
  • Implement the Neurorehabilitation Strategy in full, including fully staffed community neurorehabilitation teams in each CHO.
  • Implement the National Dementia Strategy, and provide additional funding for dementia and Alzheimer’s services and for palliative care.
  • Provide additional funding for hospice care, to increase the capacity to deliver quality end-of-life care in the community, and to support people to plan for their care at end of life.
  • Provide a sustainable level of funding for LauraLynn Children’s Hospice, and commit to develop, implement and resource a new national policy on Palliative Care for Children with Life-limiting Conditions.
  • Provide multiannual funding for the National Cancer Strategy.
  • Allow for automatic renewal of medical cards for people with terminal and chronic conditions.
  • Address children’s spinal surgery waiting lists and honour the four-month target for scoliosis surgery.
  • Invest to ensure carers have proper access to necessary Respite.

Disability

  • End the practice of placing people aged under-65 in nursing homes and develop appropriate supportive housing facilities in the community, including ring-fenced annual funding to speed up the transition.
  • Insist on a full Minister for Disability, with a mandate to ensure a whole-of-Government cross-departmental approach to disability policy.
  • Implement, enact and commence key legislation and strategies to promote and protect the rights, quality of life, the independence of disabled people.
  • Prioritise the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities when in government.
  • Establish an organisation separate from the Health Service Executive to assume responsibility of the assessment of, and care for, disabled people.
  • Introduce a statutory right to homecare and Personal Assistance.
  • Develop a roadmap on Special Education and Inclusive Education.
  • Continue to implement the Autism Innovation Strategy, and ensure periodic review of the Strategy, in consultation with relevant DPOs.
  • Implement the recommendations of the Final Report of the Joint Committee on Autism.
  • Hire additional caseworkers to support Early Intervention and School Age Teams for autistic children’s referrals around the country.
  • Develop a mandatory national training programme on autism for all school staff.
  • Invest in the Autism Community Fund’s development and delivery to support community initiatives to address the isolation epidemic facing autistic people across the country, including developing an action plan around isolation and social exclusion.
  • Provide additional funding towards improving pathways to accessing diagnostic and therapeutic services.
  • Provide better supports for families supporting an autistic person, including more respite hours and more Special Needs Assistants in schools.
  • Create a pathway for Autistic adults to access diagnosis and care
  • Recruit additional Special Needs Assistants (SNAs) and recognise the contribution of our SNAs and further professionalise the sector by providing improved job security, further education opportunities, and a clearer career pathway, in consultation with their representatives.
  • Reconstitute NEPS and expand it as the National Educational Psychological and Counselling Service to provide specialist Emotional Counselling and Therapeutic Supports, on site, in all schools.
  • Review the EPSEN Act to bring it in line with the UNCRPD and then fully enact it.
  • Develop a road map and strategic plan on Special Education and Inclusive Education, co- designed with children and families.
  • Invest in more speech and language support, shared between schools if necessary.
  • Ensure that every disabled child or child with additional educational needs gets access to a school place in the same time frame as every other child in the country.
  • Ensure that all schools are resourced to meet the needs of all children with adequate special education teachers, SNAs and any other resource children require to access their right to education.
  • Support the call for increased time in state examinations for students with dyslexia.
  • Provide additional funding for accessible educational material for deaf, blind, or vision-impaired students.

Mental Health

  • Deliver more mental healthcare via primary care and community-based mental health teams, and ensuring effective and timely primary and community mental healthcare is accessible to all.
  • Increase funding for Mental Health to 10 per cent of health budget.
  • Fully staff Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams, and expanding Adult Community Mental Health Teams.
  • Expand Old Age Psychiatry, services for intellectually disabled people, and the Child and Adolescent Liaison serviceMake multi-annual funding the norm across HSE-funded, and other state-funded, organisations delivering mental health services.
  • Resource an increase in specialist inpatient bed capacity for eating disorders from the existing 3 beds to the 23 beds pledged in the Model of Care.
  • Progress legislation to update the 2001 Mental Health Act so that it complies with international human rights standards.
  • Provide appropriate funding, and organisation, to acute and in-patient services, so that those in crisis receive immediate and compassionate care.
  • More support groups and advice/education for family members.
  • Improve dual diagnosis (addiction and mental illness) counselling and community services, and full implementation of the 2023 HSE Dual Diagnosis Model of Care.
  • Increase neuropsychology services (for issues like dementia and brain injury).
  • Aim for a situation where, by the end of one term of government, all schools (primary and secondary) have access to at least one specialist emotional counsellor/therapist as a permanent member of the staff.
  • Reconstitute NEPS and expand it as the National Educational Psychological and Counselling Service (NEPCS) and mandate it to provide specialist Emotional Counselling and Therapeutic Supports, on site, in all primary and secondary schools.
  • Implement the recommendations of the Inspector of Mental Health Services July 2023 report into CAMHS, including the independent regulation of CAMHS by the Mental Health Commission.
  • Implement the recommendations of Families for Reform of CAMHS.
  • Expand CAMHS to cover young people up to age 25, in line with international best practice, and improve focus on early intervention, targeting programmes at young adults 18-25.
  • Resource teams dealing with early intervention in psychosis and ARMS (at risk mental state).
  • Restore CAMHS bed capacity to 72, moving towards the necessary 115 beds over time.
  • Work towards the full clinical and administrative staffing of CAMHS teams, including the aim of establishing 16 CAMHS-Intellectual Disability teams.
  • Reinstate the Mental Health Bill 2024 to Dáil Committee Stage and progress the Bill to completion.
  • Provide sufficient funding for the Sharing the Vision implementation plan.
  • Expand services for young people that do not qualify for CAMHS, including by resourcing primary care and community-based mental health teams to provide a more comprehensive service.
  • Begin addressing the national shortfall of 832 acute psychiatric inpatient beds identified by the Specialist Group on Acute Bed Capacity
  • Resource National Clinical Programmes in Mental Health.
  • Implement and operationalise the Youth Mental Health Pathfinder Project.
  • Fund an independent advocacy service for people with mental health difficulties.
  • Older People
  • Conduct a review of the privatisation of elder care, and the market structure for those already privatised.
  • Introduce a statutory right to homecare and provide a budget for a person-centred homecare scheme with equality of access and availability.
  • Invest in homecare packages to abolish waiting lists, and develop step-down and rehabilitation facilities
  • Appoint a Commissioner for Ageing and Older Persons.

Housing/Infrastructure

  • Fund the implementation of the National Housing Strategy for Disabled People.
  • Implement changes to Housing Adaption Grants to increase funding, increase the maximum grant amount to reflect building costs, and reform the means-testing process.
  • Build new designated housing for older people, building both in small infill sites in our cities and towns, and also incorporating them into new developments.
  • Introduce replacement schemes for the Motorised Transport Grant and Mobility Allowance based on assessment of individual needs.
  • Invest in public transport to ensure it is more accessible for people with disabilities.
  • Mandate consultation with Disabled Persons’ Organisations (DPOs) at all stages of the development of transport strategies and new transport projects, whether led nationally or locally.
  • Expand the Free Travel Scheme to include people in receipt of the Domiciliary Care Allowance.

Other

  • Develop a new National Carers Strategy.
  • Working in consultation with carers and their representatives, create a suite of policies that support carers to enter (or remain in) employment or education where they wish to do so.
  • Recognise that parents of children with disabilities and certain carers have particular demands on their time and require further flexibility in employment.

Sinn Fein

Party Wesbite: https://sinnfein.ie/

Manifesto available here

 

 

Social Protection

  • Abolish the means test for Carers Allowance
  • Increase the weekly rate of Carers Allowance by €60
  • Increase the annual Carer’s Support Grant by €50 each year
  • Introduce pay-related Carers Benefit
  • Increase the Domiciliary Care Allowance by €50
  • Increase Disability Allowance, the Blind Pension and Invalidity Pension by €70
  • Increase the state pension rates by €50
  • Secure medical cards for people with disabilities that are not impacted by employment status and expand the Wage Subsidy Scheme
  • Establish a Social Welfare Adequacy Commission to provide objective, evidence based annual recommendations on adjustments to payment rates

Health

  • Deliver free prescription medicines for all households
  • Abolish prescription charges for medical card holders
  • Deliver median-income medical cards
  • Phase out hospital parking charges
  • Deliver 2,000 community beds, including 1,200 short and long-stay residential care, nursing and rehabilitation beds, and deliver full regional community neuro-rehabilitation networks
  • Provide multi-annual funding certainty for the cancer strategy, cardiovascular health, diabetes, rare diseases and other strategic improvement programmes
  • Develop a No Child Left Behind health waiting list strategy to improve paediatric orthopaedic and urology services, expanding dental screening in schools, revolutionising children and youth mental health services and improve children’s disability services

Disability

  • Develop a workforce plan to fully staff Children’s Disability Network Teams and conduct an evidence-based and independent review of the service delivery model and end pay disparities for core service providers
  • Double PA hours over a term of government, increasing annually the number of PA hours by 354,000 hours.
  • Provide an additional 1.5 million disability home care hours
  • Provide over 3,000 additional residential places
  • Deliver on de-congregation commitments
  • Expand the number of day services places by 4,000
  • Doubling investment in respite services to deliver a range of additional in-home, afterschool, day and overnight respite services
  • Develop a common, compliant and efficient process for assessment of need under the Disability Act
  • Review the Disability Act 2005 and EPSEN Act 2004, ensuring the state is compliant with existing disability and equality legislation, and work systematically towards full compliance with the UNCRPD
  • Temporarily fund access to approved community and private psychology and therapy services, particularly for those waiting longest for assessments and intervention, with a view to phasing out reliance on private providers as we build public capacity
  • Support persons with disabilities to participate in employment, by increasing investment in the Wage Subsidy scheme and roll out career supports for young people with disabilities across the country based on the Walk PEER model at a combined cost of €16m annually.
  • Provide the NCSE (National Council for Special Education) with greater powers to ensure that sufficient, appropriate school places and classes are provided, and the needs of children are met alongside robust appeals mechanisms
  • Recruit additional educational psychologists along with greater administrative support to make better use of their time
  • Provide funding for the recruitment of 1,000 additional Special Education Teachers and 1,300 additional SNAs on average per annum
  • Ensure that data on educational outcomes for people of the deaf and hard-hearing community and people with SEN is collated and progression reviewed
  • Improve and reverse cuts to the Summer Programme
  • Revise the allocation of special education teaching hours to include complex needs
  • Extend the “Fund for Students” with a Disability (FSD) across Further Education and Training, so that it applies to all FET courses, not just PLCs at a cost of an additional €5m
  • Implement the Autism Innovation Strategy and develop further policies that support neurodiversity.

Mental Health

  • Implement Sinn Féin’s €250m Mental Health Action Plan to deliver comprehensive early intervention, primary, community and acute mental health services, particularly for young people.

Older People

  • Pursue a ‘home first’ approach to care, develop a modern home care scheme and prioritise public home care delivery of five million additional home care hours
  • Champion the creation of a new UN Convention on the Rights of Older Persons

Housing/ Infrastructure

  • Deliver a €102m capital programme to make all public transport wheelchair accessible
  • Introduce tiered grant-based supports for the purchase, adaptation and operation of private cars and allowances for the use of taxis
  • Double the grants for the adaptation of existing homes and deliver 9,000 new-build public housing units suitable for disabled people

People Before Profit

Party Wesbite: https://www.pbp.ie/

Manifesto avalable to read here 

 

 

Social Protection

  • Abolish the means test for Carers Allowance & pay carers a Living Wage of €15 an hour
  • Raise pension and benefits to €300 immediately
  • Raise all disability payments to €350
  • Immediately increase the Qualified Child Allowance by €12 for under 12s & €30 for over 12s
  • Extend eligibility for the Fuel Allowance to all pensioners and to all in receipt of the Working Family Payment and Carers Allowance
  • Abolish the waiting period of a year for Fuel Allowance for those on Job Seekers Allowance and immediately increase Fuel Allowance by €20 per week for current and proposed new recipients
  • Double the Living Alone Allowance
  • Restore the pension age to 65

Disability

  • Immediately increase the number of Special Needs Assistants by 2,000 and Special Education Teachers by 1,000
  • Ensure that every school in the State has an autism class and every school offers a summer programme
  • Increase the number of psychologist posts in NEPS by 50%
  • Immediately increase the number of Special Needs Assistants by 2,000, Special Education Teachers by 1,000
  • Immediately hire 375 additional clinicians to clear waiting list for assessments of those with autism
  • Establish a centralised database from the moment a child is diagnosed to provide better data tracking and forward planning for a child’s needs and a seamless transition to adult services and supports
  • Introduce emergency measures to ensure full staffing of Children’s Disability Network Teams and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, including speeding up the recruitment and recognition of the qualifications of international candidates for therapists

Health

  • Introduce free GP care and abolish health related charges
  • Lift the recruitment embargo and invest in capacity to reduce waiting lists
  • Establish a fully publicly owned and funded National Childcare Service to provide free childcare for all
  • Immediately increase the number of SNAs and SETs by 2,000 and 1,000 respectively and employ 375 clinicians to clear assessment of need waiting lists
  • Introduce Free Primary Care for all including GP Care
  • Establish a network of 500 public primary health care centres
  • Abolish charges and fees, including prescription charges for medical card holders & car parking fees, across the health sector
  • Eliminate the Drug Payment Threshold: make prescription drugs free
  • Immediately add 1,000 permanent acute beds with appropriate staffing and an additional 50 level 3 ICU beds
  • A sustainable funding model for funding Childrens’ Hospice care
  • The development and implementation of a new policy on children’s palliative care
  • Expand the provision of public nursing homes

Mental Health

  • Invest €500 million in Mental Health Services in 2025 to bring spending towards 12% of overall health budget by 2027

Housing/Infrastructure

  • Ensure that all public housing developments are of an accessible design and are fully disability proofed so disabled people can live independently
  • Expand the Housing Adaptation grant schemes and increase funding to clear waiting lists and ensure access for all
  • Make sure Free Travel is genuinely free; get rid of booking charges for pensioners
  • Prioritise retrofitting for those living alone and in homes with a low BER

Other

  • Establish a Commissioner for Ageing and Older People
  • Introduce paid care leave so workers can look after sick children or elderly relatives without loss of income and increase annual leave for all workers

Aontu

Party Website: https://aontu.ie/

Manifesto available here. 

Social Protection

  • Seek the abolition of the means test for the carers’ allowance.

Health

  • Seek to change the funding of the health service to a patient engagement model. Where a patient receives an operation, a treatment, an engagement or a consultation, the state will pay the provider.
  • Better access to respite services and increased weeks of respite for those in receipt of round-the-clock care, to alleviate the pressures on family carers.
  • Advocate for more regulated and public home care hours to be provided by the State, rather than agencies, so that people can receive care in their own homes and allow the family carer a daily break from their work.
  • Press for 10% of the current health budget being assigned to the development and delivery of Primary Care in communities.

Mental Health

  • Allocate an additional in €10 million in funding to establish 12 additional CAMHS teams.
  • Aim to hire 40 additional specialist nurses in the areas of mental health, intellectual disability and suicide prevention.

Centre Party 

Party Website: https://www.centreparty.ie/

Manifesto & policy documents requested as of 20/11; below taken from the party website. 

Social Protection

  • Income tax and welfare reform to ensure work is always the more beneficial choice over welfare.

Health

  • Deactivate the HSE
  • Transfer ownership of public hospitals to Staff-Owned Enterprises (SOEs)
  • Introduce a universal, basic health insurance system for the funding of healthcare.
  • Remove unnecessary regulations and allow Pharmacists and GP’s to offer more services directly to patients.
  • Fund free health check-ups for citizens every 5-years
  • Develop a “National Care Service” to support carers and those who require care.

National Party

Party Website: https://nationalparty.ie/

Manifesto & policy documents requested as of 20/11. Nothing of specific relevance to family care in position or policy outlined on party website. 

*Note: The National Party are working as a collective with other Nationalist Parties in General Election 2024. See the Alliance website here. 

Independent Ireland

Party Website: https://www.independentireland.ie/

Manifesto available here

 

 

Social Protection

  • Abolish means testing for carers

Health

  • Increase the number of medicines a pharmacist can prescribe to reduce demand on doctors
  • Introduce a new healthcare model to allow for 24/7 treatment
  • Increase funding to smaller, regional hospitals that can provide urgent and routine care to people who do not reside in large cities
  • Establish public-private partnerships to help shorten wait-times for medical care
  • Introduce a reimbursement scheme for Republic of Ireland private hospitals and continue the Northern Ireland reimbursement program
  • Maintain and increase funding for community hospitals
  • Expand use of elective surgery units to prevent cancellations and backlog
  • Automatically issue medical cards to patients undergoing cancer treatment for the duration of their treatment
  • Introduce outpatient mental health respite facilities, to address the gap between acute admission and community care
  • Increase grants for nursing homes to remain in compliance and prevent nursing home closures
  • Add dementia units to community hospitals
  • Allow downsizing senior citizens to remain near their families and retain their independence by doubling the size of rear extensions (in areas with insufficient infrastructure and community housing)
  • Expand prescription drug payment scheme

Disability

  • Increase funding for Special Needs Assistants (SNAs)

The Irish People

Party Website: https://www.irishpeople.org/

No manifesto available as of 20/11. Nothing of specific relevance to family care in position or policy outlined on party website. 

*Note: The Irish People are working as a collective with other Nationalist Parties in General Election 2024. See the Alliance website here. 

 

Irish Freedom Party

Party Website: https://www.irishfreedom.ie/

No manifesto available as of 20/11. Below points taken from the Party Policy Document available here. 

 

Health

  • Major investment in home and social care to free up hospital beds
  • We will require all maternity hospitals to develop a ‘perinatal palliative care plan’ as a positive alternative to abortion in rare and tragic cases where a pre-born child has been diagnosed with a life-limiting condition. We will invest in post-natal palliative care to provide families whose children have been born with life-limiting conditions the help and support they need.
  • We strongly support the development of hospice care throughout Ireland to provide a positive alternative to euthanasia for those who are terminally ill.
  • We will set up an urgent review of hospice care capacity in Ireland and provide funding for the expansion of hospice care and associated services. Families who wish to care for their loved one at home will be enabled to the extent possible.

Mental Health

  • We will support substantial investment in mental health.

Disability

  • We support a Disability Policy that puts the person at the centre of decision making and funding.
  • We will relax standards in insulation, disability access and open space provision for existing buildings, where achieving new standards can be very difficult to achieve

Older People

  • We want a review of the Fair Deal Scheme so that those that have saved to provide for the next generation are not unfairly taxed as they are at present.

Ireland First

Party Website: https://ireland-first.ie/

No manifesto available as of 20/11. Nothing of specific relevance to family care in position or policy outlined on party website. 

*Note: The National Party are working as a collective with other Nationalist Parties in General Election 2024. See the Alliance website here.