Fine Gael has accused Fianna Fáil of taking carers for granted.
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"At the moment about 85 per cent of all care provided for dependent elderly people is provided by non-professional carers, mostly relatives, neighbours or friends," said Fine Gael policy director, Mr Richard Bruton.
He cited ESRI statistics showing 1,000 carers of people with disabilities are on waiting lists for respite care, and a further 1,370 people with a disability are waiting for residential care.
"Often this is 24-hour a day, seven day a week, task with little help and little respite," he said.
Fine Gael is proposing to ease the means test for carers allowance and to pay a 50 per cent carers' allowance to those receiving social welfare. They also aim to provide free GP services for people with disabilities and to double the home help budget.
"Even though there are over 130,000 carers in this country, just 17,000 receive the carers' allowance, according to the CSO," said Mr Bruton. "Of these 35,000 are providing over 50 hours care per week, while a further 17,000 are providing 20-49 hours per week".