The Government has been accused of "shamefully" underfunding the State's 120,000 carers, despite figures showing that 21,000 people have benefited from increased respite care grants this year.
The Labour Party said the €19 million provided in respite grants did not acknowledge the service provided. Its social and family affairs spokesman, Mr Willie Penrose, added: "Carers are saving the State more than a billion each year. But there are many who fall into poor health yet still cannot get a respite grant."
He was responding to figures released by the Department of Social and Family Affairs which show that an estimated 21,000 people benefited when the annual respite grant was increased in June.
The increase was from €735 to €835 for carers of one person, and from €1,470 to €1,670 for those looking after two or more. The grants allow recipients to pay for temporary, alternative care such as hired help or private nursing home care.
It is estimated that carers look after 35,000 children with very severe disabilities, 30,000 people with dementia, 10,000 people disabled because of strokes and 50,000 older people.
The Carers' Association estimates this work is worth at least €1.9 billion annually to the State.
Carers who pass a means test also receive a carer's allowance. In a report last year, the Oireachtas All Party Committee on Social and Family Affairs recommended that this means test be abolished and that the respite grant be extended to all carers
But Mr Penrose, who chaired the committee, said these recommendations had not been implemented.
"To date, the Government has virtually ignored the report, which took six months to produce. Even the carer's allowance is working out at a miserable 80 to 90 cents an hour for those who qualify for it in full. So much for a caring Government."
But the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Mary Coughlan, said the increase in the respite grant, introduced in the Budget last year, was "another indication of the Government's aim in building a caring society".
A Department spokeswoman added that the respite payment was designed only as a contribution towards the time, expense and effort that carers put in.
"It doesn't pay them for what they do. So in that sense, we can agree with the Opposition that, of course, it isn't enough," she said.