Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)

I too welcome the Bill and pay tribute to Deputy Penrose for the huge amount of work he has done in this area. The carers of Ireland are truly the forgotten people of the Celtic tiger. Seán Lemass said that a rising tide lifts all boats. I assure his successors in Fianna Fáil that the Celtic tiger tide has done nothing to improve the lot of carers in Irish society.

The most up-to-date statistics we have on the number and position of carers are contained in the 2002 census. Whereas I do not wish to get bogged down in figures, the census allows us for the first time to move from hearsay to facts and figures about carers and those they look after, and is therefore worth some consideration. The question asked in the census regarding carers was as follows: "Do you provide unpaid personal help for a friend or family member with a long-term illness, health problem or disability, including old-age?" A total of 148,754 people answered "Yes". All those answering "Yes" to this question were classified as carers.

Of all carers, about 66,000, or 44%, live in rural Ireland and about 56% live in urban areas. Carers as a percentage of the entire Irish population amount to 4.8%. Nearly two thirds of carers are married, 61% of carers are women and the majority of carers are between 35 and 55 years of age. However, to get a real picture of the lives of carers, it is important to look at the statistic on the amount of time respondents stated they spend providing unpaid care to a relative or friend.

Of the 148,000 carers, 57% work unpaid for between one and 14 hours per week, 10% work unpaid for between 15 and 28 hours per week, 5% work unpaid for between 29 and 42 hours per week and 27% work unpaid for 43 or more hours per week. A quarter of all carers are working for 43 hours per week or more with no adequate recompense from the State. The amount which carers are saving the State annually by providing this level of care must be astronomical. If the individuals being cared for in the home had to be cared for in nursing homes, hospitals or other facilities, it would require billions of euro to care for them.

Another interesting and alarming statistic emerged from the census. Some 11,744 carers are aged between 15 and 24. Many of these carers are in secondary school or in third level education and may have to spend hours caring for a loved one when they come home from school or college. However, of these 11,000 carers aged between 15 and 24, just 261 of them received the carer's allowance in 2003. Just 2% of these teenagers and young adults got financial aid from the State last year to help them to look after their loved ones. How can Irish society and the Government justify providing no financial support to thousands of teenagers and young adults in these circumstances?

The vast majority of the State's carers get little or nothing in return from the State. Let us consider the paltry amount of expenditure on support for carers annually. According to its own statistics bulletin, the Department of Social and Family Affairs spent €183 million on the carer's allowance in 2003 and almost €7 million on carer's benefit, a total of €190 million on financial support for carers. This represents a drop in the ocean compared with the likely cost of transferring the care for the people being cared for over to the State.

In 2003, 21,316 people were in receipt of carer's allowance. This represents just 14% of all carers identified in the 2002 census. In other words, the so-called caring Government gave financial support to just 14% of carers in 2003. Just over 1,000 people in County Kerry received carer's allowance last year. Dozens of carers who have been in touch with me in recent months are under severe financial pressure in caring for their loved ones. In many cases, their income exceeds by a small amount the income threshold to qualify for the allowance. I appeal to the Minister to bring an end to such cases by abolishing the means test for carer's allowance. Carers do a job — they may not see it as a job, but as a duty of care — that someone else would be doing if they were not in a position to do it. We should acknowledge that carers want their work to be recognised. We should support them in the tremendous, unselfish, loving and dedicated work they do.

When Fianna Fáil Deputies met for a think-in at Inchydoney recently, I am sure they heard Fr. Seán Healy urging that carers be given a greater level of support. I do not doubt that most of them nodded in agreement with Fr. Healy. Did some of them nod in agreement with Deputy McCreevy, however, when he said that Fr. Healy was "spouting rubbish"?

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