Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion about carers. I have been vocal in my support for carers in west Cork, especially in the times that we live in with Covid-19. Carers are unsung heroes. Many carers give up their everyday lives so that they can care for their family members. This often means leaving them with no time for themselves. The very least that we can do is support them in every way possible.

The Government has failed to prioritise carers in the roll-out of the vaccine. Last night, it changed the goalposts yet again. Income supports that are available for family carers are simply not good enough. Some of those being cared for are over the age of 80 and are not able to go to their doctors for their vaccines. This was meant to be rolled out by the National Ambulance Service. We have been left with elderly people stuck inside their homes and in no way able to get their vaccines. More than 2,000 housebound people in Cork and Kerry should have been vaccinated. This was meant to be carried out by the National Ambulance Service. However, only 5% of these people have been vaccinated. Some of them are in their 80s and 90s and they or their families have been in contact with me. They have not been vaccinated. It is not good enough. We lost enough of our elderly generation during the initial stages of the Covid pandemic and we are still losing them.

Our family carers should be given more credit and more financial support. We need to focus seriously on what payments are made to carers. These payments need to be significantly increased. The way we are working is penny wise and pound foolish. If many of these elderly people had their loved ones to care for them, they would be at home and maybe not in nursing homes or community hospitals, costing far more money. We need to give more serious consideration to giving more decent contributions to carers, because it is a 24-7 matter. The way that elderly people are being treated is shambolic, including how the fair deal scheme has been dragged out, bleeding people of their bit of savings that they worked hard for over the years.

We have had the longest lockdown in Europe and it looks like it is set to continue. It is due to years of mismanagement by the HSE, failure to add ICU capacity in the pandemic and the vaccine roll-out being a shambles. Now, newly-trained doctors are being let go. The Government needs to work with family carers to deliver supports and services to their loved ones and it needs to prioritise family carers for vaccination.

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