Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I attended the funeral of a young girl with special needs this morning and the woman sitting beside me had a child suffering from the same impairment. I asked if she would go to the graveyard and she said she could not as there was nobody to look after the child. This gives a window on the circumstances facing many families acting as carers. Her husband sought to take time off work but could not and no one else in the area would look after the child. She knew the deceased child and bereaved family intimately, yet could find no support.

Census figures suggest 40,000 carers provide 43 or more hours of unpaid help per week. What will we do to help such families?

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