Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion. It is always welcome to speak on the issues facing carers but particularly so given the report released by Family Carers Ireland last week. The findings of the report are shameful. It is another report about the disgraceful lack of support for carers and those for whom they care and another reminder that life is harder, more stressful and more expensive for carers. Carers are struggling financially, the stress is impacting on their mental and physical well-being and the State is not providing critical support services. All of these issues are entrenched. They have been present for years and they intensified during the pandemic.

We will not improve the lives of carers without real systemic change. They will not be solved by tinkering around the edges and moving the means test threshold up a few euros. The means test needs to go in its entirety but that is only one facet of the struggles facing carers. A total of 69% of carers report that they find it difficult to make ends meet with nearly a third cutting back on essentials like food and heat and nearly a quarter missing at least one mortgage or rent payment over the past year. That figure rises to 35% when it comes specifically to carers who are renting privately or from the council. The housing crisis affects every person in the State and we can see how it exacerbates other problems we face across society. Carers are facing pressure from all sides with the lack of financial or practical support from the State for their caring duties and cost-of-living pressures, all of which are on top of a lack of affordable, appropriate and secure housing.

Support for carers is not just a matter of money. It needs to be an holistic approach that provides respite, housing support and mental health supports. Nearly 50% of carers are experiencing severe loneliness. This is blatantly down to the demands of caregiving, which severely limit social opportunities. That level of isolation compounds the stress and anxiety experienced by so many carers. We need targeted supports and interventions to address the crisis of loneliness among carers, ensuring they have the time and the finances to be able to engage with their communities and to help build social networks they can depend on.

Respite services constitute an essential aspect of that. A total of 72% of carers have never received a single moment of respite care rising from 65% in 2020. This is an issue I have been highlighting for years and despite countless promises from Government, availability of respite services is scarcer than ever. Research has consistently shown that respite improves the well-being of individuals and their carers. Respite is about giving everyone a break and giving the individual and family some space. This allows everybody a chance to rest and to recharge. We all know the incredible stresses faced by the families with either children or adults with disabilities. Nobody can live under that pressure without it affecting his or her mental and physical health. Families and carers need respite.

Respite is an opportunity for disabled people to increase their independence, socialise with other people and experience new and different activities. Reports to the National Disability Authority based on participation by people with disabilities showed high levels of satisfaction with many aspects of respite services, especially the chance to get some time for themselves and to engage in interesting and meaningful activities. The participants noted that respite gave their carers a break, particularly their mothers.

Respite is an essential service. This has to be recognised by the Government. There is a pressing need for a drastic increase in respite capacity. Respite is an essential part of disability services, yet it is very clear that there are very few respite beds and community services. Talking to families, one of the issues they often bring up is the lack of respite services for children and adults with disabilities.

Unfortunately, this is symbolic of the larger state of disability services in Ireland. There is a severe lack of respite capacity and staff shortages, inconsistencies in services and poor communication with disabled people and their families. Once again, the State is failing in its responsibilities and leaving overstretched and exhausted families without basic services. There has also been a gradual increase in the number of agency staff in this area. This is only a stopgap measure and fails to address the much larger systemic issue of staff in disability services.

Respite needs to be treated as a vital service for disabled people and their families. Until the Government appreciates its importance and many benefits, thousands of families will continue to be denied it. Figures released to me in response to a parliamentary question show that there are currently only 46 public respite beds in Cork, down from 73 in 2018. Access to respite has still not recovered from the pandemic and the closure of community nursing units. Respite services are incredibly important, but are also symptomatic of larger issues around disability services. They do not seem to be a priority.

These people are being failed every day and there does not seem to be any sign that is going to change. We have heard promises over and over again and we hear the Government talking about how much it values carers, but where is the evidence? The claim that the Government values and supports carers does not stack up, given the reality experienced every day by people who are caregiving. If we compare the Government rhetoric to the reality in the Family Carers Ireland report, there is a stark difference.

There are daily financial struggles, anger at the lack of services, constant anxiety about the absence of supports and dread about what will happen to their loved ones when a carer is no longer around. The problem is not even that there is no support out there, although that is increasingly the case for many families; rather, it is that the State often seems to erect barriers to deny people what little support does exist. Qualifying criteria for supports are almost impossible to meet. There are time consuming and complicated applications and people do not have the time or energy to fill them out. There is an attitude of complete apathy from State institutions that chips away at people's morale and sense of self-belief.

There are more than 299,000 unpaid carers in Ireland. That figure has grown by 53% in just six years. Every one of those carers provides an invaluable service to the State, but the State does incredibly little to support them. Too often, it does the complete opposite and makes life actively more difficult and expensive for them. Carers need to be supported. The State needs to provide targeted mental health supports for carers, provide increased support for housing adaptations, deliver more accessible social and affordable homes, get rid of the carer's means test, extend access to the fuel allowance, provide more respite beds and guarantee 20 days respite a year for carers. It is past time that the State introduced these measures to improve not just the lives of carers, but also the lives of those for whom they are caring.

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