Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is the most odious section of this short Bill which will have far-reaching consequences. It proposes a reduction from €1,700 to €1,375 in the annual respite care grant. I had intended to make a longer contribution on this matter, but I am aware that many Deputies want to speak on it. I have received many e-mails on this issue. I hope that by reading from an e-mail I have received from a carer which has been signed "a very tired woman", I can capture everything I had intended to say:

I am the mother of 3 children, 2 of whom have special needs. My children need 24/7 care, 365 days, that is every single day since they were born, there are no holidays away with them or from them, I am all they have as their father died last year. This cut in the respite grant plus the children's allowance having a 10 euro cut per child plus the cut in the household [benefits] package plus the increase of medical prescriptions has left me in tears, literally tears. As a one income family, I can't work as my daughter has so many therapies and hospital appointments, there is no job in the land who would employ me if I was to go to Galway Monday for hospital appointments and Dublin for treatments Thursday and the other side of Mayo for dental treatments another day, let alone the rare but needed speech therapy that was hard fought for. I barely am able to pay for the car that takes us to all these places by the Domiciliary Care Allowance and the tax/insurance is paid by the Respite Grant, the petrol is almost covered by the children's allowance but not now. It's a struggle to shop every week, to keep oil in the tank, coal on the fire, and God forbid, a letter comes home from the school looking for money for something or one of them need new shoes or rips a trousers or the car breaks down, my nightmares revolve around that, when I can sleep of course [and] as I said, my special needs child is 24/7 and sleep is a luxury at times. The money I get weekly/monthly/annually is earned, every single cent. 325 euro is small change to most in this government, it's a meal for the buddies and the 20 euro a month I am losing on children's allowance is the equivalent of ONE bottle of wine with that meal. Small change to those who can change our lives while they have never known financial insecurity or what it is to ceiling stare in fright and fear thinking and worrying about how am I going to last another 3 days with no money in my purse or bank. This government has us hard against a wall though, they know we can't protest in the thousands that we are because we can't bring the people we care for out of their homes into the streets in a lot of cases. They know we will never abandon our people like the government has.

That is part of a longer e-mail.

I urge the Minister to examine her conscience and the Government to examine its collective conscience. They need to reverse this cut. They should delete this section of the Bill. The e-mail from which I have read captures all of the despair and distress it is causing. The consequences of this cut will be felt on the collective conscience of the Government. I have mentioned that I have received e-mails from many distressed parents and carers who have contemplated the worst. I urge the Government to give them some hope by deleting this section. We have set out some of the alternative ways of gathering the small few million euro involved. If the Government does not act, it will have electoral consequences for the Deputies on the other side of the House and the poor carers in our society who are struggling day in, day out. The Minister referred to them as unsung heroes, but I suggest that was an insult to them. One looks up to one's heroes. One praises and supports them in their times of need. By introducing this measure, the Minister is not supporting them.

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