Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party) | Oireachtas source

Independent Ireland will also be supporting this motion on young carers. I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is astonishing to think we have 67,000 young carers in this country. We have given them nothing but lip service over recent years, which is an injustice to those young people. Many of them are in the Gallery and were in the audiovisual room earlier. We need to show them the respect they deserve because looking after someone - actually for nothing - is a very unfair situation for a young person to find themselves in. Many - 67,000 of them - have found themselves in that situation. We as a State need to step up to the mark, show them the respect they deserve and put measures in place.

I heard someone say earlier that the system of care in this country is broken. It certainly is and we find that right across the line. When we means test the carer's allowance, that tells us how out of touch a Government is. It continues to punish people who save the State millions of euro in this country. As I said, we have 67,000 young people who are carers. How many adults are caring for loved ones at home and are saving the State millions but are literally being ignored by the State? Instead, the first thing the Government needed to do, especially in a country where we are led to believe there is money, was to abolish the means test. That would have given people a chance to be at least recognised in some small way. It is not a lot of money. We are not talking about €1,000 here. It is maybe €250 or €300. It is small money but it is recognition for what they do. Those loved ones would be in a hospital or a nursing home and requiring this type of care only for these carers. The Minister needs to understand that changes need to be made immediately.

I have spoken already this week about section 39 workers. I welcomed the pay increase of 9.25% in the Workplace Relations Commission agreement last week but then we find out afterwards that people who are caring for loved ones, families or for residents in nursing homes will not get that increase. That is very unfair. I have spoken to Tadhg Daly and to a lot of different people this week who are badly hurt by this decision. These are people who show the hand of love every day of the week to people in nursing homes. I saw it myself in Bishopscourt Residential Care centre last week because I was invited to meet the residents, the staff and the owners there. It does not matter, however, if it is Bishopscourt, Baltimore, Clonakilty or Drimoleague; all these people are providing a fantastic service. The bottom line is that community hospital staff, who do an excellent job which is very much the same as that of nursing home staff, are at least being respected and adequately paid but the person who does the same work in a nursing home is not being paid a fair income and given pay parity. It is a cause of deep hurt, and rightly so. I saw last week the care these people give. Some of the staff were able to tell me exactly who a person was. There are a lot of residents in Bishopscourt and the staff were telling me who they were and where they were from. This issue has to be looked into. It is very important.

See this speech in context