Maria Corrigan (Fianna Fail)

I wish to be associated with the tributes paid to the late Nuala Fennell.

It is appropriate that we are having a debate on a group of people who must fight very hard to have their voices heard. I welcome the many carers in the Visitors Gallery. I also welcome the Minister of State.

I wish to recount a story that sticks in my mind. It occurred during the general election campaign in 2007 when I called to the door of a house while out canvassing and spoke to a woman who told me she did not work outside the home anymore because her mother was ill. She had given up her job to care for her. She asked me to come in and meet her mother. She told me her mother did not receive many callers and would like to say hello to me. She brought me to a downstairs room that had been converted into a bedroom for her mother who was lying on the bed and not moving or speaking. She explained that her mother had become quite ill during the previous year and that there were many days when she did not say or move much. She took care of her mother to the best of her ability. I asked her if she ever got a break or received many visitors. She said no one called to the house. She told me I might think her mother could not hear me but if I said hello, she would tell her later that I had called. I left the house and walked down the driveway. I was profoundly moved by what I had seen and struck by the thought which has remained with me ever since that there were so many quiet heroes living in our communities. We do not often give sufficient time to or have sufficient regard for them, through no one's fault, as we all have busy lives to live and have to get on with other things. There are many competing demands on our time. While I am conscious the Minister of State has many demands on her time and budget, it struck me that these are the quiet heroes, about whom films are seldom made or books written, but society could not survive without them. The Government would not be able to deliver its care programme or develop the society it seeks to develop without the contribution of carers. It is important that we are having this debate in the Chamber, as it is important to highlight the role they play. We must make provision for them, as we could not survive without their contribution.

Many welcome changes have occurred in our society and Government policy in the past few years. What drives Government policy is the concept that people must be supported to remain in their homes for as long as possible. There are advantages to this, in that the benefits in respect of quality of life and of care are known. Similarly, it is known that it contributes in a meaningful way to the physical and psychological well-being of the person with disabilities. Moreover, one now can see how quickly hospitals try to get people back home as an infection control measure. One must be honest that in trying to keep people at home for as long as possible, economic advantages also accrue to the State.

In realising such a policy, the role of carers is essential and I wish to make the case briefly for maintaining, at a minimum, the supports that are in place for carers at present. Moreover, the future should be planned and provided for through the publication of the national carers strategy. I will repeat neither the issues raised by Senator McFadden nor the statistics she has provided. However, the commitment that was provided for in Towards 2016 to develop a national carers strategy gave great hope to that group of people and I regret it has not been possible to publish it.