Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last Saturday, I buried my aunt Jenny O'Leary. Jenny McCarthy was her maiden name. She had been sick for 12 years and her daughter Linda cared for her. Jenny had a lot of issues but she always wanted to stay at home. Even up to two years ago before she stopped communicating, her daughter kept her at home. Linda had to fight for everything from home help hours to increased home help hours to weekends. Here was a daughter doing everything for her mother that her mother wished for but this State did not support her along the way. I witnessed the love that Linda, the grandchildren and the rest of the family showed her. This is just an example of the love other carers show. This is done for love not for money. They do it because they love their family members and they want to look after them.

The wife of a very good friend of mine named Jamesy had a number of massive strokes last year. Jamesy was self-employed and had his own small business. He had to give it up to look after this wife, the woman he loved. He had to fight. My office had to fight to get him a payment. He used up a lot of his savings because he could not get a payment. This is a man who had worked all his life. I played hurling with and against him. He is a great man who had to go home and look after his wife and when he needed help, the State was not there to help him.

Funding for respite services in Cork was cut by 50% in 2023. A lady I am dealing with at the moment has to fight for everything. She drives her two children, both of whom have special needs, to school because they attend different schools. She cannot get school transport or therapies. She cannot get anything. The woman is at her wits' end. I was on the phone to her last week. She said to me "Tommy, who's going to look after us? Who's going to look after my children?" That is what she is asking and that is what we are asking here tonight.

The Minister of State said that 6,137 families accessed respite care in 2023. That figure must be a tiny proportion of those who need it because I know a woman who brought her child to a hospital and left the child there because she could not get respite and she thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown because nobody was there to support her. Can the Minister of State imagine bringing her child to a hospital and leaving her child there because she could not get respite from the State? I know a family that had to go to the US last year. I raised this case with the Minister of State last year. All they wanted was two weeks off to go to the US so they could attend their brother's wedding but they could not get it.

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