Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Family Carers Ireland to the Visitors Gallery. I was at its briefing today. I fully support its pre-budget submission, "A Decade Lost". Its very reasonable demands are outlined in this motion and in the Sinn Féin amendment. I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Private Member's motion but I also have to put on record my astonishment at the hypocrisy of the Labour Party on issues such as this. Its motion refers to the period of adjustment, which is to say, when the Labour Party was in office from 2011 to 2016. This is a very dishonest way to describe a period of brutal austerity deliberately aimed at the most vulnerable, the weakest, and those least able to resist. Labour Ministers were at the front line of this brutal assault on the very people in support of whom the party has now tabled a Private Members' motion.

In the submission from Family Carers Ireland it states:

Carer’s health, both physical and mental, has deteriorated as has their access to vital supports and services, including respite. Carer’s repeatedly reported in 2009 and in 2019 that they need more respite and homecare hours to support them to be healthy. Despite such calls for support, in the last decade there has been a 70% increase in the number of carers diagnosed with depression; a 24 percent increase in carers reporting poor health; a 30 percent increase in those experiencing anxiety and a 65 percent increase in the number of carers who have no access to respite.

The hypocrisy of the Government is equally astonishing and equally dishonest. Once again the Government's amendment includes weasel words about a commitment to Sláintecare when in fact Sláintecare, as a programme of serious reform to our healthcare system which is not fit for purpose, has effectively been shelved. A key point made in the Sláintecare report is that a piecemeal approach to implementation - a bit here and a bit there - would undermine the whole project. Without Sláintecare being implemented as intended, there will be no abatement of the health crisis.

It is a crisis that is worsening daily. For example, 6,300 families have been approved for home care assistance but are not going to get it. Funding has been frozen. An internal document from the HSE refers to the probability of a €500 million cut to home help hours to try to keep within the budget for this year. The HSE and the Minister of State say there will be no cuts but the reality is that-----

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