Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I endorse the amendment. We discussed at the joint committee the importance of carers and the role they play. This report would be very revealing and helpful to analyse what is going on in a layer of society at which no one really looks. Very often, these are women. In most cases, they are women who work into their 50s and 60s to look after an elderly parent or an elderly or ill sibling. They often then find themselves incapable of entering the workplace due to their age. Technically, there is no such thing as ageism as that is illegal, but in reality it exists and it is often very difficult for those older people to access the labour market. I congratulate Pensioners for Equality which has achieved a great deal, with the Minister complying to remove the denial of the years of service of home carers, which is related to this issue of caring at home. It is not just about caring for children. It is also about caring for adults and parents. The pensioners who fought so hard to reverse that injustice can celebrate the passing of this legislation as part of their achievement. I congratulate them.

It is kind of a technical point, but when I was in prison 15 years ago for political activity, many people did work in the prison. I did not commit a crime, it was a civil action, in case Members think I am a robber. Some people work in prison to pass the day given the huge boredom they face. We all got an allowance of €2 per day, but those who worked in the prison got an extra €2. Subsequently, someone I know was imprisoned for protesting at Shannon over the war and for breaking a warplane. He volunteered to work in the kitchen and was given his extra €2 a day. He is now taking a case to the European Court of Human Rights to vindicate what he believes is his entitlement to have been paid the minimum wage for performing that work on behalf of the State in the prison to prepare and serve meals. Technically, a carer could argue the same point. I have worked as a carer and carers perform work on behalf of the State. If they did not, people like my mother or someone else's sister or father would end up in a hospital, home or other institution. As such, carers provide a safety net for the system. Technically, one could argue that carers should be paid the minimum wage for the 168 hours of care they provide every week. A carer is still caring for someone at night when he or she goes to bed. That may be a tall story and a tall argument, but the case could be taken because instead of being paid the minimum wage, the maths indicate that carers receive less than €2 per hour.

The amendment does not ask for that or anything like that. It asks simply that we look at the restrictions and the barriers and that a report be laid before the House by the Minister. Those restrictions and barriers include limitations on access to hours of work and the way means testing impacts on the life of a carer who reaches a certain age after the person being cared for passes away. People's lives are being left almost empty because they cannot access the labour market. The proposed report would be a very useful and insightful one on the lives of the women who, in the main, do the caring. It would contribute a great deal to the Department and to everyone who lives in Ireland.

See this speech in context