Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests. It is estimated that 195,000 carers provide a minimum of 6.6 hours of care per week. I think that was the metric cited. Does that include people who are receiving the full or partial carer's allowance? Is that how the statistic is measured? What is the number of people cared for? I presume that in some cases more than one person is being cared for in a particular situation.

People often talk, rightly, about the amount of money that is saved for the State as a result of the work of unpaid informal carers. It is also relevant with regard to people receiving carer's allowance when one considers the amount of that allowance compared with what it would cost to provide full-time care in a nursing home or were we to apply the cost on an hour-by-hour caring basis. A vast amount of money is being saved to the State. That is not the only point. The great desire of people to be cared for in their own homes and to live in their own homes for as long as possible is relevant as well. It is wrong to think of it purely in money terms. However, it is important that the State would always have in mind the value been given to the State by these people working in the home. Do the officials have an estimate for the value? What metric does the Department use? Given the figure on the number of carers, how does the Department measure the value they give to the State in financial terms? What is the estimate of that value? Is the carer's allowance subtracted from the potential cost of full-time nursing home care? Do we simply look at the difference? How is it measured? What is the estimate of the figure? Are there particular areas of care in geographical terms, for example, certain parts of the country, or certain types of need or disability that the Department regards in particular? I will not refer to these as black spots, because that is a rather stigmatising term, but I have in mind areas where the Department have identified particular problems.

My family are involved in caring for my father. We are grateful for the supports we receive. Occasionally, I get calls from people who may not be caring for someone with dementia but may be caring for someone who is singularly in need physically due to age or infirmity or whatever. I am sometimes shocked at how little care is actually available to such people. Does the Department have a handle on whether there are particular groups or categories of people in respect of whom more needs to be done? Is there an issue between different parts of the country and different branches of the health service in terms of the resources available to meet needs? Are there parts of the country where, to put it bluntly, someone is less likely to get the care needed for a loved one or where another person is less likely to get the care or the support he needs?