Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, Chairman, for letting me contribute as I am not a permanent member of this committee. However, I particularly wanted to attend the meeting this morning to hear the proceedings. I am very glad I did. I am glad on two fronts. The testimony from Mr. Douglas, Ms Ryan and Ms Budayova was extremely powerful. I am reminded of when I was a member of the finance committee and the people who were impacted by tracker mortgages appeared before it and told their stories.

That was real turning point in that campaign and in getting the financial institutions to listen. I hope people are listening today. I am heartened that all of the Government representatives here today support Family Carers Ireland's strategy. They are representatives of the Government and they are saying that this must be done.

There is a commitment that has to be followed through on not only with regard to this budget, but in respect of what needs to be done in the long term. It is very obvious to us all that the system is broken and that there is failure here on the part of the Government and the market on many different levels. We have the evidence. Often, when tackling a problem in government, there is not sufficient evidence to back up what is being said but we have the economic evidence and the evidence on every other front so we do not need to gather any more. We know the system is broken and we know what needs to be done. I can give an example of this broken system from the people I deal with. Somebody I know has autism and is asked every two years whether they still have it. I am not a medical practitioner but I know that, when someone has an autism spectrum condition, they will still have it later. It is not something that goes away overnight. Why are people wasting so much time? There is so much wastage here. So much money is wasted across the system in analysing, investigating and doing everything else that needs to be done.

A couple of things really stood out for me in Ms Ryan's testimony. She mentioned that, when her carer's allowance was slashed by €90 a week, with the allowance equating to 78 cent per hour, she was told that she should not look at it like that. There is a message there. That really resonates. It suggests that it is somehow the carers' fault and that they are looking at the wrong way rather than the system being broken and failing them. Ms Budayova said that carers are punished for working hard and not abusing the system. It is not only her who is being punished for working hard, but her other children and her partner as well. She spoke about not being valued and the physical, emotional and financial strain involved. The physical and emotional strain probably cannot be taken away to any great extent, although something can be done for the physical strain with respite services. I have major problems with such services not being available. I met the autism action group in my county of Mayo a couple of weeks ago to discuss the lack of residential places available. There is no respite for people at all. That is something which needs to be invested in.

We and the Government make choices. We gave a 9% VAT rate to hotels and the hospitality sector but, if you try to get a bed in Dublin tonight, you will be charged €425 for a single room. They are absolutely packed and booming and we saw fit to cut their VAT rate to 9%. Then you look at what Ms Ryan and Ms Budayova are being put through. We really need to examine the system. I hear what the witnesses are saying with regard to medical cards and widening the bands. They have provided quite a lot of evidence as to what needs to be done.

I will commend my colleagues, Deputy Kerrane - who is here and did not know I was going to say this - and Deputy Tully. They compiled a charter for family carers for our party. Many of the things that were mentioned today are included in it. That goes some way towards showing our intent to tackle the issues that are there.

I have one question for the witnesses. As bad as things were financially six months ago, will they explain the situation for family carers in the here and now in light of inflation, the cost of living, the price gouging and everything else that is going on? Family carers are struggling and trying to get through the cost-of-living crisis.