Mr. Damien Douglas:

Even the fact that someone who is so ill and so dependent does not have a medical card is madness, apart from carer’s allowance. The medical card covers a lot of costs and takes away some worry. Why is there an anomaly between what the child needs and what the family needs? To me, as a carer, it does not make sense.

We talk about being treated with dignity and respect. The words say all that but the reality on the ground is not that. We have to fight for everything. Even if we have a medical card, we have to fight for it every two or three years. Sometimes we are lucky and it comes automatically in the post, but other years we have had to go back and do the whole thing again. I have had to bring in my girls and ask people to show me what is different with them now compared with five or ten years ago or what will be different in ten years' time. Carers are fighting the whole time, and that is taking away essential energy that we need to look after our children. Even if our children are 27 or 37, they are still our children because the needs they have are equivalent to young babies.