Ms Zoe Hughes:

I will address the first question on census data. The short answer is "Yes". Anything that can make the data that we have on care and caring more robust is always welcome. I know there may be some issues around that because for some there may be an element of stigma in the family, for example, so the person who is filling out the census form may not want to recognise that his or her child is caring for him or her, or providing significant levels of care in the home. There is a level of stigma around children providing care. There are issues around that. There are school studies that have shown that the prevalence of young people and children providing care is much higher than one would think. I cannot think of the numbers off the top of my head but they are available and they will be provided in a later response. We are in favour of anything that can make the data more robust.

We share the same concerns about the census as Family Carers Ireland. The census numbers in Ireland are radically different from the various other CSO studies that show perhaps one in eight people are providing care. The number in the census is much smaller and quite different from what we would expect based on international levels.

In response to the second question on homophobia and caring, there is not necessarily a great deal of research on care and homophobia. There is research showing that for some younger male carers, there is an element of homophobia, in particular from peers. Again, because care has been feminised for so long, it is seen as something that women do, so if a boy does it, it is seen as strange. That view is prevalent. I do not believe there is any Irish research based on that because there is very little about caring in the LGBT community. It comes back to the general assumption that if when someone is caring for a person the care package is for cisgender and heterosexual care. We need to think about what that actually means. I am currently doing my doctoral study on that exact topic. I will not go into too much detail because I could talk about it for the rest of the session. I should probably draw a line under it at this point.