Ms Clare Duffy:

The Chairman asked whether there is respite for carers. There is absolutely none. There is a requirement for a person lucky enough to get a carer's allowance that he or she provides at least 35 hours of care each week. Many carers provide 168 hours. I am entitled to 26 days off a year but they have no entitlement. We believe that carers should receive a minimum of 21 days of respite a year as part of the statutory homecare scheme where a full-time family carer is present. This provision is increasingly important because, which has been mentioned, increasingly the family member is included in the homecare package of support. Where one gets a homecare package that requires two people to use a house or whatever, it is the family carer who is the second person. Therefore, they are being professionalised and subsumed into the system but for no reward. A carer in this case is not entitled to a single day's respite in a year.