Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Regarding that last comment, quite a number of our carers are non-Irish. It is important to acknowledge that.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling this motion. It builds on what Sinn Féin, Deputy Canney, others and I have done. We are doing this not to embarrass the Government. Well, perhaps we are doing it to embarrass the Government into acting. Rather than use my own words, I will cite the motion, which is looking for very basic measures, namely, a minimum respite guarantee and a relaxation of the carer’s allowance means test. We all agree it should be abolished, but if it were relaxed with a view to abolishing it, we would welcome that.

The State of Caring 2024 survey, which we have all referenced, is worth examining. It is the third such survey. In 2020, it showed that carers were grappling with financial hardships, on the brink of indebtedness and lacking critical support services. The 2022 survey stated that not only did the 2020 challenges still exist, but they had intensified significantly for many during the Covid pandemic. One might think that matters would improve after Covid, but the 2024 survey showed that carers were still facing the same challenges. The core issue identified at the start of the decade – we are nearly halfway through this decade – remains deeply entrenched, underscoring the ongoing need for a transformative approach to the support of family carers. Just like with climate change and no longer doing business as usual, we need transformative change in this regard.

For the life of me, I could never understand how the experts in the Department of Finance and the various Ministers for Finance never considered how much money carers saved the country. In my naivete, I could never understand how that was not a fundamental part of the budget every year. Perhaps this year the Minister of State might make a difference to the narrative in the budget in terms of what carers are saving our economy.

Between 2016 and 2022, the number of people providing regular unpaid care increased by 53% according to the census. In 2022, 61% of carers were female and 39% were male. There are many more statistics, but I will not go into them.

An Indecon report on the cost of disability was commissioned in 2018 and published on 7 December 2021, which was a long lapse in time. It identified no single cost of disability due to the wide range in the severity of disabilities, household types, etc., but it concluded that people with disabilities, believe it or believe it not, had annual extra costs ranging from €8,700 to €12,300 per year, although this could reach as high as €23,610 for people with multiple disabilities. We have had many budgets since the report was commissioned in 2018, but we have had two since its publication and have still not established a cost of disability payment. Along with the abolition of the means test, this would be a basic measure in a republic.

I tabled a motion approximately two years ago. The Government did not oppose it, which I welcomed. That motion was on opening up respite beds that were still closed after Covid. I welcome that the Minister of State took a hands-on approach to the matter, as did the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, but that was two years ago. I was seeking an audit of the respite beds that were available throughout the country. I still do not know how many respite beds there are. I do not know how many of them are in HSE-owned properties or in rented properties. We all table questions on how many respite beds there are available in Galway. The number is up and down and the beds still remain closed. The reasons for the change include a lack of staff-----

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