Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I spoke yesterday to the Sinn Féin motion on home support workers, I started by paying tribute to carers. Once again, I pay tribute to the immense work done by them. I support the motion proposed by Deputy Penrose and his Labour Party colleagues. Those who work as carers have been completely undervalued by the Government, even though they provide essential support for their loved ones at a substantially reduced cost to the State. Carers who do not have access to proper support services struggle to obtain appropriate training and advice on the challenges they face. They cannot access emergency support and are unable to take regular breaks from their demanding roles. They often feel alone, undervalued and ignored.

As Deputy O'Dea said, there are 375,000 carers in Ireland.

We must remember that some of them are very young, some are very old and others are dual carers because they are caring for a child who might have an intellectual disability and elderly parents. Fewer than one fifth of these people receive the carer's allowance so they are certainly doing the State some service.

I recently attended a Carers in Crisis public meeting organised by carers for carers for the south east. I was struck by what I found at that meeting. Carers feel neglected, isolated and depressed. I listened to people who were in utter despair as they spoke openly about their daily lives, the challenges they face and how difficult it is trying to cope from day to day. One issue that came up on more than one occasion was the need for emergency respite care in the event of a major family upset such as a death. I listened intently to a young mother in her forties who had a ten-year-old child with intellectual disabilities. Her own mother had passed away. She said that she felt like a beggar trying to find emergency respite care for her child because there was no way she would have been able to mind her child during the upheaval of the funeral and burial. I was struck by how difficult it is when something out of the ordinary happens and how important emergency respite care is. I am sure every Member has similar stories but if there is one pointer we could take out of this debate, it is that emergency respite care is so important.

I also want to refer to another parent whose child had intellectual and physical disabilities. The father had given up work because the child was as big as a young adult. Carer's benefit is only paid for 104 weeks. This man was coming to the end of the 104-week term and was under pressure trying to decide whether he would go back to work and wondering how the family was going to cope. There is a big ask in this regard. Carer's benefit needs to be extended to 156 weeks, which is three years. That would make a significant difference. If the child was cared for on a full-time basis by the State, it would cost far more and, therefore, it would be fiscally sensible to extend carer's benefit for a parent of a child who has to give up work to 156 weeks in order that the parent can stay at home and look after his or her own child.

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