Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their presentations. It is heartbreaking to hear and see how people are experiencing something that we all know, because our clinics and constituency offices hear about it every day. I have just got an email about somebody who is a carer who is looking for support.

I will not reiterate some of the points Ms Duffy made. Obviously, that is a strong position we hold. I would make the point, and I am not sure it was raised already as I arrived a little late, that if one needs to make housing adaptation and cannot afford it, the local authority waiting list for the housing adaptations grant scheme is horrendously long and it is also graded, and one could be waiting for upwards of four to five years for such a grant. I had been dealing with a person who had a double amputation, was in a bed in his sitting room and had waited four years for that grant. Unfortunately, the poor man passed away on the week the housing adaption grant came through for him. That is wrong. It is heartbreaking to hear of such stories time and again given that we are a wealthy country and can afford to carry out such works.

Covid-19 proved that when the State wishes to do something, it can do it. When we thought some issues were immovable mountains, they were moved. This is one such circumstance. I doubt there are very few people who would not know somebody who is a carer or who has a family member who is a carer. In my family's circumstances, there is a carer. It is the most demanding job anybody could ever do. People do it because, as has been said, they love the person in need of care and they will never walk away from that. In some ways that has been exploited because people will never walk away from their mother, brother, son, daughter, aunt or uncle. We need to show that compassion that we all know is within us. We need to find ways to address these issues. There is nothing that cannot be done. We just need to have the political will to get them across the line.

I thank the witnesses for their presentations and comments. I hope many more people see and hear what we have seen and heard today. That would shift much of the political will we need to shift.