Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Many carers are finding it very difficult to manage and survive. As was said by my colleagues, they are doing a job that cannot be done by anyone else, in many cases. People come to me who have somebody with profound disabilities and have had serious problems for many years. They may get some home help from the HSE but when they look for additional home help, they are told they will have to hire that privately. When they look for it, it simply is not there because the staff are not there to do it. It is not as if there is another option for these people other than to do the caring themselves, in the vast majority of cases. The means test means that in the case of a couple who have a child with profound disabilities, one of them has to stay at home to look after the child. The other one cannot choose not to work. They have to pay their mortgage, pay their way and get on in life. What do they do? It is simply debilitating for them.

There needs to be recognition. The Government has to recognise that it is not just about the pounds and pence, adding up, accountants looking at figures, and where this will lead to. It is about the provision of care for people in our society who need that care as an absolute necessity in their lives. That is what missing in all of this. The idea of the Government kicking it down the road until next summer is totally inappropriate. That needs to be reconsidered immediately. Sinn Féin has given a clear commitment that we would remove the means test from the carer's allowance immediately, if we were in government. This Government should do the same as we are on the edge of a general election.

A gentleman who cares for his mother contacted my office yesterday. He is getting the carer's allowance. He recently had a review. He has a small farm and does a bit of farming. During the review, the official asked him how much time he spends on the land doing the farming. He said about two and a half or three hours a day. His carer's allowance was taken away. Three hours a day by seven days a week is 21 hours and his allowance was gone. The man was just making an off-the-cuff remark. He did not measure the time he spends looking after the farm, yet his carer's allowance was taken away. Those kind of hard, difficult decisions that these people make, which absolutely destroy people's lives, need to be reconsidered. The way they should be reconsidered is by the Government recognising that carers are people who need to get support. It is not just about getting support but getting respect. It is about having respect for people with disabilities who need the care as well as, usually, their very close family members who provide the care for them out of a sense of love, kinship and understanding that these people have no other option. There is nobody else there to care for them, yet the Government continues to abandon them.

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