Results 1-9 of 9 for carers speaker:Paul Gavan

Seanad: Work Life Balance and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022: Second Stage (14 Dec 2022)

Paul Gavan: ...It is a continuation of recent debates and legislation on remote working and flexibility. While a wider scope could have been adopted, the Bill is a welcome start. It provides leave for parents and carers, which is a good step forward. The Bill is not perfect and we have raised issues around the proof elements. More could be done on that and we can come back to it on Committee Stage....

Seanad: Private Nursing Home Sector: Statements (16 Nov 2022)

Paul Gavan: ...for highlighting the issue of workers in the sector. Further challenges for nursing homes are staff shortages and retention. There are, on average, five vacancies in every nursing home because of the lack of qualified carers and healthcare assistants. The Government has spent years expecting carers to pop up out of thin air. I acknowledge the difficulties that the sector, especially...

Seanad: Finance (Covid-19 and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2022: Second Stage (10 May 2022)

Paul Gavan: ...in the Bill. It is quite unbelievable that the Government would announce a bonus and five or six months later not one health worker has yet received the payment. I would also like to mention family carers. It is terribly sad that family carers who went through such isolation, as services and respite were cancelled, who worked tirelessly night and day looking after and protecting their...

Seanad: Covid-19: Statements (6 Apr 2022)

Paul Gavan: ...while still being able to cope with Covid cases. The Government needs to do everything possible to ease the burden on front-line healthcare workers. I wish to mention those healthcare workers and carers who have worked tirelessly and heroically over the past two years. The Government has given very little recognition to carers, which is regrettable. Carers got no respite and little or...

Seanad: Brain Health and Dementia: Statements (9 Mar 2022)

Paul Gavan: ...when we are talking about addressing risk factors for dementia or minding our brain health. During the pandemic, day care centres for people with dementia were closed. This put considerable pressure on carers, with many telling us that they were at breaking point. Most of the centres have reopened, but I hope that more will be done to increase the number of day care centres and services...

Seanad: Covid-19 Vaccination Programme: Statements (29 Mar 2021)

Paul Gavan: .... Has he been made aware of any further examples of people being given the vaccine ahead of their place in the queue? Speaking of the vaccination queue, Sinn Féin has put a fundamental emphasis on family carers, as the Minister knows. When will he instruct NIAC to look at family carers and apply ethical principles to this group? Family carers are recognised as health and social...

Seanad: Order of Business (10 Jul 2018)

Paul Gavan: ...task force on the matter. Both the Convention and the Department of Justice and Equality advised against repeal simpliciter and recommended instead making the constitutional clause gender neutral and including carers within or beyond the home. This is an opportunity to do something positive, recognising the rights of carers and the crucial role they play in our society. A third option...

Seanad: Order of Business (17 Nov 2016)

Paul Gavan: ...people are feeling. I wish to raise today another issue of which the Government seems blissfully unaware, namely, the time one must wait for State benefits. The average waiting time for the carer's allowance is 40 weeks, as we know from an answer to a parliamentary question. The overall waiting times for some other benefits are 27 weeks for a State pension and 21 weeks, on average, for...

Seanad: Order of Business (5 Jul 2016)

Paul Gavan: ...that bankrupted the State. Rather than choosing to increase taxes on those who can afford to pay more, both Governments chose to cut child benefit, jobseeker's allowance, one-parent family allowance, carer's allowance, means-tested fuel allowance and pension payments. That is how it has happened. It is an absolute disgrace. I am calling for a debate on this issue. I ask the Leader to...