Ms Kelly Anne Byrne:

Fundamentally, it is down to the number of hours we are allowed to access courses. At the moment, it is still 18.5 hours and if we do any more, if we take on any training above that or if we decide to work over those hours, we have to lose our carer’s allowance. That is just not possible as we would be in severe poverty if we did that. For me, we would need at least 20 hours a week in order to be able to even look at starting to upskill.

As I said, being a mother, a lone parent and a carer is a full-time job in itself. Even to start looking at anything further is a bonus. I do not want my children growing up living in a box, thinking that this is their life now and that they have to follow the footsteps and go onto social welfare themselves. I want them to open their mindsets and to be able to use the abilities they have. Even though some of them have disabilities and things like that, there are ways around it, especially nowadays, when we have moved along a lot from the situation of years ago. We are learning that everybody learns differently and everybody has different ways, and we are adapting to that.

I feel that, for our future, it is time for the Government to allow the correct hours and support us to be able to move on, to gain work and to find a solution, rather than just to stay where we are.