Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minster of State, Deputy Feighan, for taking this motion. I thank my Fine Gael colleagues who are united in support of carers, particularly Senator Kyne, who co-authored the motion, and Senator Conway, for yielding his spokesperson entitlements to me to allow me to propose the motion. I am very grateful to our Seanad team.

Throughout our country every day, family members care for their loved ones in the most dedicated and selfless of ways. Some do so while also working full and part-time jobs, and they do so with or without financial compensation. The figures published by Family Carers Ireland state that more than 500,000 people provide family care in Ireland, comprising 19 million hours per week of unpaid care hours and saving the State €20 billion per year. There is no single profile of a carer nor a recipient of care - they are young and old, parents, siblings, partners, children caring for parents and parents caring for children. The needs being cared for comprise a broad church, from special needs and disability all the way through to caring for the necessities and reduced capacities that come with old age.

I have been very deliberate in my language. While I accept Senator Higgins corrects me in one of her amendments, most probably rightly so, I believe it is important that we keep front and centre that the recipients of care are people who are loved and cherished by their carers. There is no “othering” about this. It could be any of us, and quite possibly the numbers include Members of this House who are providing care. One day, any one of us could be someone in need of care.

Our motion is about ensuring that carers are supported and that those in need of care are provided with every assistance required to enhance their quality of life. It is about hastening the programme for Government commitments to support care at home, in our community and in residential settings. We are recognising and prioritising the need to formalise and the value of formalising care outside of residential and hospital settings.

A number of Fine Gael Oireachtas Members met with Family Carers Ireland in recent months. In that discussion, it was striking that family carers can often feel invisible and that their experience is that of living through the experiences of the person they care for. "No one asks me how I am" was a point made by one contributor to the discussion in question. It is time they were made visible and that they were thanked in the most practical and pragmatic of ways, that the financial security supports are implemented to the full, and that the practical supports are provided for as locally as possible to the carers and those for whom they care.

I have seven asks in the motion and none are outside of what is already committed to in the programme for Government. It is really a call that we hasten this into being. It is vital that the review of the national carer’s strategy should take place as quickly as possible. We need to take full cognisance of all that has been achieved and of the work yet to be done. The updated strategy is vital and work on this must commence immediately. The threshold of carer's allowance entitlement must be reviewed. Appropriate and adequate pension provision must be made for carers, recognising the value to the State of their role and ensuring they are compensated where they have been unable to work and build up pension entitlements for themselves due to their caring commitments. We need to accelerate the work on the programme for Government commitments in respect of carers by the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Department of Social Protection. We are calling for the publication of a pathway to ensure full implementation of the enhanced community care programme. This is an excellent programme, intended to expand primary care capacity and improve access to therapy services, such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, psychology and physiotherapy. I welcome and value that the Government has put in place an additional €150 million for its implementation.

It is very good news that the carer needs assessment is being rolled out currently in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. This programme will determine family carer needs more clearly and link carers with their relevant services and supports. I hope this will be a great success and will be replicated all over the country as quickly as possible.

I acknowledge that, in the last two weeks, the heads of Bill for the publicly funded home support providers legislation has been published, which will extend the fair deal scheme outside of care facilities. The programme for Government promises a carers guarantee so the full panoply of supports for carers can be provided, regardless of where they live. When can we expect movement on this? We need a timeline and one that is compact, reflecting that, throughout Covid, carers, as an extraordinary group, have especially carried an enormous burden for our State, and have done so valiantly, bravely and quite alone at times in the last year.

There is a commitment to establish a commission on care.The commission needs to be cognisant of and recognise the future role of the decision support service when it is fully established so that vulnerable people in need of care are assisted in making decisions about their future and have a say in what their needs are. This is bound up in the commencement of the remaining sections of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act. Although these provisions are scheduled to be on course for June 2022, I believe there is even a delay in that timeframe. We need it as soon as possible. People are becoming wards of court almost on a daily basis. It is important that we accelerate this so that those in need of care are in charge of their decision making and the personal assistance that should arise and flow from the provisions is put in place as quickly as possible.

For all of this to be a success we need to provide training courses for home carers. They need help in areas such as healthcare, lifting and mobility, all of which would be beneficial to those being cared for and carers themselves in support of self-care.

There is a desperate need for respite care. I know of a situation at the moment where a mother cares for her daughter. The mother needs reconstructive surgery and has recently had to cancel it because she cannot secure respite care. We need to provide enhanced respite care services and include emergency provisions to accommodate instances where carers like the lady I mentioned may need to be hospitalised or where an emergency arises and carers need emergency respite services for loved ones in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

I acknowledge that the past five years have seen a 50% increase in expenditure on supports and there have been unprecedented increases this year as well. However, this funding needs to continue and be accelerated. A just society values care, a community that cares and a state that values carers. It is time for this just society to be fully implemented for family carers and their loved ones. I commend the motion to the House.