Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to have an opportunity to debate this issue. I thank the Social Democrats for putting the motion before the House. It certainly is very timely with the budget happening next week. I have been and am appealing to the Government to get rid of the means test for people who are caring for loved ones. We are talking about human beings. When people become carers, they must, in many instances, live the other person's life. Whether someone has Alzheimer's disease, a disability or whatever else, their carer has to work around them to make sure they are looked after and treated as humans and that their daily and hourly needs are met. It is a fierce responsibility.

It is not fair to deny people carer's allowance just because their partner or some other person in the house is earning money, to which the carer may have no access. A promise was made to get rid of the means test during the lifetime of the Government. That suggests the cap will be increased year by year over four or five years. I ask that the Government go further at the start than raising it by just one fifth. It should do more because this is an essential support for carers, who do massive work. Many speakers have noted that carers around the country are saving the State €20 billion.

During the summer, I never had so many people coming to me wanting a few days off and to put the person they are caring for into some respite place. It is impossible to get a respite bed in Kerry for anyone who wants to go away for a week. One woman who looks after her mother said to me, "Danny, I do not mind too much myself but I want to go on holiday for a week with my little boy, who is more attached to me than to his father". She has been minding her mother continuously for five years. Can the Minister of State imagine that? She has been continuously seeing to the daily and hourly needs of her mother and she could not go away for one week. It was absolutely savage.

There are no respite beds. Taking the area from Mick the Bridges, where drivers turn off the N22 for Kilgarvan, and all that territory down through Kilgarvan, Kenmare, Sneem, Castlecove and back into Caherdaniel, there is only one respite bed in Kenmare hospital serving that area. People are supposed to get four weeks of respite in a year but there is no way for that to happen. They only get one week and the bed will have to be booked now if they want it in the middle of summer next year. Can the Minister of State imagine that? People must book a respite bed a year head in Killarney, Kenmare, Listowel and Cahersiveen community hospitals. They are being treated terribly and it is not fair. Will the Minister of State look into this? The beds are there but the staff are not. That is what needs to be addressed. I am very hurt about it when I see that a young girl with a family and an autistic little boy cannot go away for just seven days for a bit of a holiday. I have spoken to another woman in Killarney who has been minding her mother-in-law, who needs an awful lot of care and attention, for many years. She could not get a respite bed anywhere. I do not know how she managed in the finish but she was crying to me on the phone for days.

What is happening in Kerry is a terrible situation. We have been let down very badly. We do not know when the new community hospital is opening. We have been asking about it but the opening has been put back. There are other plans for the old district hospital and for the grounds of St. Finian's. We do not have the primary care unit in Killarney we have been waiting on for so many years.

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