Mr. Damien Douglas:

I congratulate the two women on giving their stories, because nobody can tell it better than the people themselves. We can read about it, but it does not matter until we hear about it in the raw flesh with the emotion. The background story is so powerful. That is the case for so many carers. Most of us are private and we do not want to come into a room like this to bare our souls and our family’s circumstances.

We are private people ourselves, and we speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. My girls will never speak and they are 27 now. Hopefully, Ms Ryan’s and Ms Budayova's children will grow to 27 and beyond and will have a quality of life, but all of our children, whether they are children or adults, depend on us, the parents and the carers, to give them whatever quality of life they get. They may be in and out of hospital, they may be in and out of services, but that quality is going to be severely impacted by our ability to look after them if we are burdened by debt, by worry about income or by worry about losing carer’s allowance or having it reduced. Our allowance was reduced to €26.50 as part of a review. While I am not allowed to use certain language here, that is not fair.

It is not even about the physical money. It is about being recognised as someone who is doing something and as families that are giving a quality of life that nobody else can give. We say we value the life of our children but we do not value them if nobody else does. It is about being able to do it in real terms.

I mentioned our fear of getting older and frailer and living a life of poverty. I used to have hair but I do not anymore. I notice the Chairman used to have hair too. I am sorry for that.