Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In preparing for today's motion, I could not get away from the thought that if tens of thousands of children were working in any other industry in this country unpaid, unrecognised, unsupported and unprotected by the State, it would be an absolute national scandal. Yet, day after day, this is happening in homes the length and breadth of the country where young people are, as my colleagues have said, forced to fill in the gaps left by the State. They do it because they care and, in many cases, because they feel and know the State could not care less.

Take, for example, an eloquent young man who made contact with me recently seeking help in getting carer's allowance. This is a young adult carer in his early 20s who looks after his mother full time. This bright young man was pursuing an education that was to lead him into one of the medical professions. Unsurprisingly, his mother's worsening condition and the increased time he needed to be at home to take care of her made continuing on that path impossible. He also had to turn down the chance to work across the water. This is a young man who sacrificed a lot, but he is not asking for the world. He is just looking for a normal life and the opportunities all of us at that age took for granted. Asked what he needed, he just said, "A little help to get by". So far, and for reasons I cannot get my head around, that little help to get by in the form of carer's allowance has been denied to him. The case is under appeal and I sincerely hope that he will be successful.

This is a double failure by the State. It is a failure to support these young carers and young adult carers, but also a failure to provide State supported care for the adults who have come to depend on them through no fault of their own. As my colleagues set out, the impact of all this on young carers is absolutely profound and acute. In 2023, the Sharing the Caring report from Family Carers Ireland found, as Deputy Wall said, that 80% of young carers are at risk of clinical depression, and more than half feel they simply cannot cope.

What are this new Government's plans to deal with this social emergency? There is not a word about young carers in the programme for Government. There is no recognition of the unpaid work young carers do in our social protection system and the rules governing carer's allowance, and other income supports often act, quite frankly, as barriers to young adult carers accessing or continuing in further education, training or employment. This is the definition of a poverty trap. As this motion calls for, we need a new national strategy for carers, specifically one that recognises the needs of young carers and young adult carers.

We are behind some of our closest neighbours in this regard. Scotland, for example, just last week signed up to what they call the young carers covenant. In recent years, we, in this country, have stopped being innovators in the space of social progress and we need to catch up. We could do so by implementing, for example, this covenant. It is a commitment to a fair future for all young carers and young adult carers and we should look at adopting it in this country. Young carers and young adult carers are not asking for much. They do the work they do out of love. All they are asking for in return is for their futures to be protected and to feel that the structures of the State are wrapped around them in support of their work, not a constant barrier they must butt their heads against relentlessly in order to make any progress.

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