Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

I ask the Chair's permission to share time equally with Senator McFadden.

I welcome the Minister of State and thank him for attending. This matter is very simple. It asks that we recognise the contribution of carers. I pay particular tribute to the carers in my area of Cork city, to Mr. Peter Cox and those involved in the Cork Family Carers Forum.

Over 106,000 people provide full-time care in our State for the elderly and the sick, in many homes and communities. The key words are homes and communities. These people save the State €2.5 billion per year. It is wrong that the national carers' strategy has not been implemented. This is regressive. It is important that the Government stops its rhetoric and pious platitudes and delivers and gives a commitment to the cost-neutral elements of the strategy.

As the Minister of State will know, from his current position and from being Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, carers are unique people who provide a great service to the community and the people for whom they care. They prolong the lives of many people who otherwise would be in institutions and would not have the quality of care that carers provide for them. There is a need to deliver on the national carers' strategy. I lament the fact the Government has decided not to proceed with this. Given the recession we face, we all accept that costs must be trimmed and excesses removed. However, as Senator Paul Bradford stated in this Chamber last week, the cost of providing a non-means tested carers' allowance would be minimal to the State.

The Government is instilling fear, worry and concern in the minds of carers and those for whom they care. What does this tell us about the Government's attitude to carers and to those who are in need of care or are elderly? The Departments of Health and Children and Social and Family Affairs, the HSE and all involved — stakeholder is the great word we use — must come together in this recessionary time to deliver on the cost-neutral proposals in the Government's policy on the national carers' strategy.

The Carers Association has proposed many good, sound, sensible cost-neutral proposals and I know the Minister of State is familiar with these. I cannot understand why there cannot be an announcement to the effect that the carers' allowance can be shared by two carers who provide care on a part-time basis. This relates to the establishment and regulation of quality standards and community and home care services in the delivery of home care packages and other home care services. The anomaly whereby the income generated by carers who work part-time as home helps with the HSE is taken as means in respect of their carers' allowance payment should be rectified. Income generated by all carers working the allowed 15 hours should not be taken as means. Carers have raised other issues. It is important to develop the existing resources at our disposal to put in place a work-life balance that recognises the great work being done by carers and that gives hope and comfort to those being cared for.