Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy John Halligan on tabling the motion, which keeps the issue of carers and those for whom they care on the agenda. Yesterday, while preparing for this debate, I was struck by a report which highlighted the two very different worlds the Government has allowed to develop in this country. According to this report, sales of Prada handbags in a well-known Dublin store increased by 100% in the past year. This means people in this city can afford to pay €900 for a handbag. Sales of Chanel products in the same shop are going through the roof, Hermès products are performing strongly and sales of Céline handbags are on fire. The lowest price for a Hermès bag is €6,500. The famous Grace Kelly style is a popular seller and orders have been taken for crocodile bags costing between €35,000 and €42,000 because the shop in question has run out of these items. These brands are not being bought by lone parents, carers or low income mothers whose child benefit has been cut. I am speaking on behalf of thousands of people who must have their means and supports protected.

As Deputies are aware, 187,000 families provide an essential service to the State free of charge. It is estimated it would cost the State €4 billion per annum to provide this service. The cut in the respite care grant is mean and unnecessary. The Minister of State, Deputy Lucinda Creighton, revealed yesterday that the budget for the Irish Presidency of the European Union will be €70 million. If the Government were to follow the example set by the Danish Government, it would cap the budget at €35 million, thereby achieving savings that would cover the cost of the cut in the respite care grant and leave €10 million for other purposes.

The cut in the respite care grant does not make economic sense. If only 280 families were to decide - perfectly understandably - that they could not take any more and ceased providing care to their family members, the cost to the State of providing institutional care for their loved ones would be between €600 and €1,000 per day. This would eliminate in one stroke the savings of €25 million the cut in the grant will purportedly achieve. Given that the respite care grant is the only payment given to 20,000 full-time carers, a cut of 20% is not modest, as the Minister for Communications, Energy and Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, claims.

The Government is continuing the policy of the Fianna Fáil Party. Since the budget of 2009, carers' incomes have declined by up to €64 per month. Cutbacks in State services have affected 82% of carers and 9,000 carers are on the waiting list for carer's allowance. This is three times more than when this Government, which claims repeatedly that it is protecting the vulnerable, took office. Half of applicants for the allowance wait for more than six months for their application to be processed and appeals take up to two years. The Government should accede to a call made by the Carers Association to introduce a form of amnesty under which applicants would be paid now and subject to a bureaucratic means test later.

I also fully support the call from the Carers Association for the publication of the national carers strategy, which was drawn up by the previous Government after widespread consultation. The Fine Gael-Labour programme for Government commits to providing for the strategy and to implementing the necessary measures, for example, income supports, recognition by the health professions, training, access to the labour market, transport and housing.

The Government has much to answer for. It cannot keep pointing the finger at Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil started this, but the Government is continuing it. It should stop it.

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