Mr. Conor Murphy:

I thank the Chair and I thank the witnesses for their presentation. It is clear that carers are a forgotten aspect of health service provision because they do their work out of a sense of love and duty. For this reason it is highly unlikely that they will go on strike and this is how they end up exploited by the health systems on either side of the Border. The point on the Transforming Your Care programme is correct as most people say it is a very good plan, in theory, but no provision has been made to implement it. The idea was to take people away from acute medical treatment and into the community but this happened at the same time as budget cuts on carers. In practice the initiative contradicted itself. This is a tough area and I do not doubt the benefits of an all-Ireland approach, particularly in Border areas where issues such as access to health services, rural transport and so on exacerbate an already difficult situation for carers.

I am very interested in the recommendations to the committee. At the start of the meeting the Chairman said we would focus on health matters and this is one such issue. Often when there is a focus on health matters carers are ignored so we must ensure this issue is part of our deliberations on all-Ireland health matters. We must see if pressure on both Departments, North and South, will help them follow through on decent propositions with practical support.

I too must apologise because I must attend another engagement but I first wanted to register my support for the witnesses and their presentation.