Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

One in eight people in Ireland currently provides unpaid care. First, I thank the Regional Group, and especially Cáit Nic Amhlaoibh, for their work in producing this motion. I thank them for all of the work that they have done with the organisations that represent carers in this country.

It is an incredible that one in eight people is tasked with this particular role. It is tremendous work. It is really important work. The care they provide is borne out of love for their families. It is really important that we recognise that work not just through words but through support as well. We cannot just be an Oireachtas that claps people. We have to be an Oireachtas that really values people by putting our money where our mouth is as well.

Care work can be seriously arduous. For the many people involved in care, such work can be very physically difficult. It can be emotionally very difficult. It can be 24-7 work, meaning that people get very little respite in terms of the work that they do. In actual fact, in terms of work per hour there are very few comparable roles within society. It is obviously the case that the people who do this work do it out of love, first and foremost, but there are associated costs too. There is an opportunity cost in terms of the incomes carers could earn elsewhere in society. There is a financial cost. There is also the dependency that it creates because many of these carers are women. As a result of the system, they become dependent on their partners' income in regard to their work. That leads to a significant vulnerability as well.

It is important to recognise that this work saves the State billions of euro on an annual basis. If we look at our trajectory, Ireland is becoming an older country. We will have more carers in the future because more people will be in need of care and the State will make further savings in relation to it.

A number of weeks ago the State spent €20 million on a referendum that the Government said it wanted to use to improve the lives of carers. During that referendum the Government said it would be a new dawn in terms of the support that would be given to carers. One would think in that referendum that the Government had become activists on behalf of carers throughout the country. Unfortunately, since the referendum the zeal of the Government, in terms of its support of carers, seems to have disappeared completely. We still see child care facilities closing on a weekly basis. We see nursing homes closing around the country. We still see children being put into unregulated care with unvetted staff, and dozens of these children go missing on a monthly basis. In some cases, according to UCD research, some of those children are being exploited by criminal gangs as well. It is an incredible situation. There has been no change in that.

It appears that a lot of the words of the Government during the referendum were empty hollow husks in terms of this matter. Ireland, unfortunately, provides welfare and supports on a basis of a cliff. If one goes beyond a certain income, one falls off that cliff significantly. That cliff does not take into consideration the economic costs and challenges that those people have. This motion seeks to give not just words but also financial supports to those who need them. My worry is that the Government is going to offer platitudes in response to the motion. It might not even vote against this motion. It will hope that this motion disappears into the background and that people forget about it in the next while. We will not forget about it.

See this speech in context