Results 1-20 of 130 for carers speaker:Mary Lou McDonald

Ceapachán an Taoisigh agus Ainmniú Chomhaltaí an Rialtais - Appointment of Taoiseach and Nomination of Members of Government (9 Apr 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...The Taoiseach now says he will ratify the protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He has taken his time, so he should stop the dithering and delay and get it done. Our carers, likewise, deserve respect. They do incredible work. They save the State billions. They deserve proper respite care, financial support and access to the services those they care...

International Women's Day: Statements (5 Mar 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...who, inspired by the powerful humanity of the women of the CervicalCheck scandal, fights for the dignity of proper healthcare. We send solidarity to every woman of honour. We stand with women and carers who heroically battle the system for disability services, mental health interventions or vital life-changing surgeries for their children. We sound the clarion call of change for every...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (5 Mar 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...that the provision of care for vulnerable citizens is not the responsibility of the State are entirely wrong. They are, of course, very informative because they go some way towards explaining why carers have been so badly treated, why they have been left behind time and again and why so many find themselves burnt out and in a desperate lifelong battle with the system in the context of...

Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation (14 Feb 2024)

Mary Lou McDonald: Family carers do incredible and compassionate work looking after loved ones. As the Taoiseach is aware, they save the State billions of euro, yet they always feel that they are forgotten, left behind and ignored by the system and the Government. On Monday last, my colleagues, Deputies Carthy, Tully and Cullinane, met with families affected by the lack of disability services in County...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (28 Nov 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: People are reeling since events that took place in Dublin last Thursday. In broad daylight, small children and their carer were attacked, stabbed outside Gaelscoil Choláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square. One five-year-old child remains in hospital fighting for her life and we pray that she and all those injured will make a full recovery. We stand with this amazing school community who,...

Financial Resolutions 2023 - Financial Resolution No. 4: General (Resumed) (11 Oct 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...budget is found in the area of disability. I think the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, raised this particular area. Since yesterday afternoon, we have heard countless voices of people living with disabilities and their families and carers. They have expressed a clear sense of abandonment and of being let down, forgotten and left out in the cold. Not enough has been done to protect people...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (18 Apr 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...the State to account when they are denied the services and supports they need and to seek redress when they are failed. Far too often, people with disabilities, their families and, indeed, their carers must fight the State for everything and it should not be that way. People should not have to stand with placards on Kildare Street. Can the Taoiseach tell our citizens with disabilities...

International Women's Day: Statements (8 Mar 2023)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...I welcome today's announcement of a referendum on Articles 40 and 41, but this is only the first step. We want to see a change that affords constitutional recognition and protection to caring and carers. We know that change is possible as the women of Ireland have already created change, not because these rights were handed down to them by anyone else, but because they demanded the...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (14 Dec 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...people on home care waiting lists. This has been brewing for years, and it sees older people pushed into hospitals and nursing homes when they should be cared for in their own homes. There are no carers available to them because the Minister has failed to plan a sufficient workforce and address long-term pay and conditions issues that have harmed recruitment and retention. At the same...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (18 Oct 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...They have nowhere else to go. His wife, Patricia, and his two children, Grayson and Priya, stay in the tent. He stays in the car. They live day to day. Graham said: I’m on disability and half carer's. My wife works. We have to run a car and feed kids. The expenses add up. Speaking about the conditions in the tent and how his children are coping, he said: It was a game...

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (20 Sep 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...reality of those who do hard physical jobs that take a toll on the body. Many of these workers started working at the age of 16 or 17, and some did so at a younger age. I am talking about factory workers, carers, retail workers, those on their feet all day in the service industries, nurses and many, many more. Hundreds and thousands of workers will be left out in the cold under this...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (8 Feb 2022)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...The programme for Government commits to action within six months of the Commission on Pensions completing its work. Will the Government's response include State pension provision for a long-term carers, a commitment to rule out pension age increases and – what needs to happen – a return to the right to retire at 65 and an end to mandatory retirement? I ask the Taoiseach to...

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Dec 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: Carers are on the front line.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (14 Dec 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: Carers have had a particularly difficult road during the Covid crisis. In the early days of the emergency, respite services were withdrawn and they are still not back operating at full capacity. Before this virus ever came carers were under enormous pressure, but the curtailment in supports during the past two years has forced many of them to face real burnout. This morning carers took to...

Financial Resolutions 2021 - Financial Resolution No. 2: General (Resumed) (13 Oct 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...retire on a pension at 65 years of age because it is the right, correct and decent thing to do. I want to make special mention of those who are often marginalised in society and forgotten by the Government, namely, communities crying out for mental health supports, citizens with disabilities and our heroic carers. Even before the pandemic, there was a mental health crisis. That is why...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Social Dialogue (29 Sep 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: ..., insufficient funds for staff and a dogged refusal of Departments and State agencies to provide multi-annual funding are universal challenges. I have a particular concern for family carers, in terms of the inadequacy of State supports and their physical and mental health. During a meeting I had with Family Carers Ireland services in Wexford and those that support them, it was clear...

Confidence in Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence: Motion (15 Sep 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...and those campaigning for services are locked out and ignored. I refer to those who regularly stand outside the Dáil protesting just to get the ear of the Government. I mean citizens with disabilities, carers, children waiting for surgery, families in Donegal and beyond whose houses are literally crumbling around them - the list is endless. These, in my view, are the voices...

Ceisteanna - Questions: Economic Policy (2 Jun 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...and access to the labour market, fair working conditions and social protection and inclusion. When we look at the current and historic barriers to equality of opportunity for people with disabilities, carers, young people from areas of disadvantage or the Traveller community, it is clear we need brand new thinking and new approaches in tackling inequality.

Ceisteanna - Questions: Cabinet Committees (31 Mar 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: ...in the same position as those in the North, where vaccination is moving ahead at pace. Of course, the Taoiseach is aware there is an occupational element to that scheme. It is why, for example, carers got priority and have been vaccinated in the North. The occupational logic was applied in the correct decision to vaccinate healthcare workers - those on the front line - first. It was...

Caring for Carers: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members] (31 Mar 2021)

Mary Lou McDonald: I will be sharing some time with Deputy David Cullinane. At the beginning of this debate the Minister for Health described family carers as the "backbone" of caring in our State. I will put on record some of the words of the backbone of care in our State: I am so fed up and worn-out from fighting for the basic rights of my daughter. With so little support, I live in a constant state of...