Joan Freeman (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am here more than anything to support Senator O'Donnell. She is marvellous. Her passion comes through every time she speaks, and what she has produced reflects exactly the kind of person she is. She is committed and has such enormous love of humanity, and it shows in her report. I was not going to speak either but I really wanted to say a few things.

I watched my mother and my mother-in-law live and die at home. They were in a very fortunate position because they had a large family and we did all the minding and caring. We forget such efforts all the time. I have two very good friends, one of whom travels down to Kerry every weekend. Her whole weekend is spent looking after an elderly parent while her sister looks after the parent during the week. I have another friend who does the same thing in Longford. They are saving the State many thousands of euro. They have lost much of their own lives doing this. They have put their own lives on hold. One of them does not get any carer's allowance. Any carer's allowance would never be adequate anyway for the amount of work and the hardship they go through, not that it is hard to mind a parent, but one's life stops and there are no two ways about it. In my case, I had to leave my children every Tuesday night to stay with my mother. I found this terribly stressful but there was no way under the sun we would have allowed our parents to go into a nursing home. This should be the main focus. Deputy Enda Kenny said this is a wonderful place in which to grow old. It is not a wonderful place in which to die. Furthermore, when I had two parents, a mother-in-law and a mother, die within months of each other, it was at enormous financial cost and there was no bereavement grant. Again, because we are a big family, we were able to club together and pay for it, but do we all remember how older people are always terrified of not having enough money to have themselves buried? What a terrible thing to have to think about and worry about. The removal of the bereavement grant was an insult to the people who worked for our country and made it what it is.I congratulate the Minister on her new job and it is lovely to meet her. I know she has probably already organised her budget but I ask her to consider reinstating it.