Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for acknowledging the extraordinary work that carers do in our community. There is no doubt that a huge number of families have very active family carers way beyond the 60,000 who receive carer's allowance or carer's benefit. A huge level of voluntary support is willingly given to support loved ones within the family.

The State has over many years provided good but not adequate services in this area. I have always been impressed by the community services in our health areas, the public health nurse on the front line, the gateway to many services, and the home help services that are provided and are increasingly being delivered. The Deputy will be aware that the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has recently recognised that there are gaps in access to home care packages and that he has had a recent consultation, to which I am sure the Deputy contributed, whereby he has invited all people who have an interest in this to make submissions as to how we should develop a statutory home care service for the long term to support carers, be they adult carers or child carers. The Minister of State is well advanced in this work.

There is an obligation on us in this House to recognise that home care is as important as, for example, nursing home care, in respect of which we have had for many years now, under fair deal, a reasonable certainty for families as to how they will be supported if one of their loved ones enters a nursing home. We have not had the same certainty in respect of home caring. We have had a mixture of tax breaks, respite grants, carer's allowance and access to home help. The Minister has recognised, however, that we need to integrate that into a more coherent service in order that carers, be they children, as Deputy Mattie McGrath said, or adults, have a sustainable support on which they can depend. This is clearly a priority. We spoke earlier about hospitals and their needs, but often the unsung heroes in our health system are the carers who silently provide care 24-7. The State must recognise them in a much more tangible way. I am very hopeful, therefore, that the initiatives that the Minister of State is taking in this area will be very valuable.

The Minister of State has also taken steps to provide immediate access to general practice care services free of charge to people on carer's allowance or carer's benefit in order that some of their concerns and pressures are addressed. This is an area where public policy clearly needs to evolve, and the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is working hard to ensure this.

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