Ms Catherine Cox:

The services and supports carers would see as important include access to emergency respite in their communities when an emergency happens. Another support would be access to training. When someone first becomes a carer, he or she very often has never had to care for somebody else, provide intensive care or lift or move someone. A person would get access to that basic training when he or she needs it but also - again, in the community - to more intensive training if he or she is caring for somebody in the end-of-life stage. Other things carers would get access to are advocacy, information and support. The guarantee would provide carers with a core basket of services when they need them in their communities. As an organisation, we would be able to provide that and support them with it. That, in a nutshell, is really what the carers guarantee is about. Importantly, there would also be one-to-one support. For carers who are really in crisis and struggling, we provide one-to-one support. We carry out a well-being assessment and, based on that, we provide an intensive, eight-week support programme that might include counselling for the carer and wider supports for the family.

There has been engagement. We have met with Ministers and with senior officials. The Deputy is right that the programme for Government calls for the carers guarantee to be implemented. A sum of €2 million was allocated in the budget last year but we are still trying to figure out whether it was for the national carers' strategy or the guarantee. It is in the HSE service plan. There is €2 million sitting there that we are trying to get put into the carers guarantee. Hopefully, that will happen in the next few months. Again, any support that the committee could give us in terms of progressing that would be hugely helpful. This funding would end the postcode lottery of services and supports for carers, which would be a huge improvement in services.