Mr. John Dunne:

To be fair, we have done some good work with the HSE during Covid. As a general rule, what causes a crisis for a carer is that the HSE is able to respond to less than half of the need because it can be housing, financial, transport or whatever else. However, we now have an emerging protocol in that regard with the HSE. We told the HSE at one stage during Covid to give us its most problematic cases. Some of them were exceedingly problematic and required a holistic response, but in one case it was simply that there was someone in a high-rise apartment in which the lift was broken. The HSE did not know where to go with that. It took us a phone call and maybe a visit and it was sorted. We need somewhere that holds the broad range of responses. I will put our hands up in that I am not saying we are doing that everywhere yet, but we are rolling out the guarantee.

As for social welfare specifically, to be fair, both Care Alliance Ireland and Family Carers Ireland share information, and the Department of Social Welfare is very proactive in that regard and good at that. Where people often need help is in filling out the forms. The statistics show that quite a lot of initial applications are turned down, often because the form was not filled out properly. Then a significant number go forward for appeal. We provide an awful lot of help with appeals as well.