Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I really appreciate that. A few people did not take their slots so we underestimated the time. This is probably the last time I will speak in the Dáil and I appreciate being allowed to speak on this topic.

I thank Sinn Féin for tabling the motion and the carers' association and all the carers out there who do the job they do. It is a job I did for two years when my mother was alive. It is a job I was proud to do, but it is a hard job and it means that people are more or less on call 24-7. That puts carers into a special category that is not recognised and never has been by any Government. Never mind this one, it has never been recognised by any previous one and I doubt it will be even by the next one, except for this fact. The carers are getting organised. Family Carers Ireland has organised tens of thousands of them. They are becoming like a trade union, like a working group who are standing up and fighting for themselves. I commit myself when I am outside the Dáil doing real politics to helping them to build a movement that will pressurise any future government into listening to them and giving them what they rightly deserve.

I find it ironic that in his speech when he announced the budget, the Minister for Finance made a statement in relation to carers that "the Government is committed to supporting individuals and families with caring responsibilities". That is a strong statement, much stronger than the wording proposed in the care referendum, which was defeated because of the wording. That wording, in a weak and non-committal way, said that Governments would strive to support carers. The Minister's statement is more committed than the one given to us in the referendum. It is no wonder it was defeated as it failed to recognise the role hundreds of thousands of men, women and often children play in keeping this society going and the €20 billion per year, last estimated in 2022, they save the Irish State. Given that we now have a huge surplus with the Apple tax, the very least any government should do before going out of office is to abolish the mean-spirited and often personalised and intrusive assessment for the carer's allowance.

The criteria are intrusive, often asking personal questions and, as was illustrated earlier, asking what people do with their daily time if they work more than 18 hours a week. For example, farmers might say they are working 21 hours on the farm and lose the carer's allowance for that reason. It is time we recognise the absolutely fundamental role carers play and will continue to play. We have to thank them, but thanking them is not enough. We also have to reward them. In our election manifesto, People Before Profit commits in the future to paying carers a living wage of €15 per hour. No other party recognises that in an average week carers work the many hours they do, but given an average working work, they should receive the living wage of €15 per hour, never mind the minimum wage. The abolition of the means test is crucial to treating them with the respect and recognition they deserve. Their lives are put on hold. I can say that from lived reality. I was a short-term carer but many do it for a whole lifetime. Recognition of that sacrifice is needed and driving them into poverty and treating them as objects is beyond the pale. We need to end that practice and I hope in the future the movement will force a future government to do so.

See this speech in context