Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Irish Women's Parliamentary Caucus and Senator O'Loughlin on all their work on this comprehensive motion. I welcome the motion on behalf of Sinn Féin and I want to express our support for it. In our view, we really need to move beyond the idea of care as just being a family matter. Carers have long been the backbone of care provision in Ireland but time and again they do not receive the care and support they need and so rightly deserve. I am particularly conscious that the role of carer has traditionally fallen upon women.

The view enshrined in the Constitution belongs to a different era. Ireland has come a very long way and the time is long overdue for the Constitution to reflect that. I welcome that the Government has finally listened to calls to hold a referendum on this clearly outdated clause in the Constitution. I was happy to be a member of the recent Oireachtas Joint Committee on Gender Equality. It is vital that this article is replaced with appropriate wording that promotes gender equality and reflects our status as a modern, progressive state committed to fairness for all our people. Any constitutional change must also oblige the Government to take responsible measures to support care within the home and in the wider community.

It is estimated that family carers save the Exchequer approximately €20 billion per year by caring for their loved ones at home and keeping them from having to be cared for in hospital or a care home. However, carers themselves are left struggling both with their physical and mental health. Caring in Ireland has long been associated with poor health outcomes such as stress, burnout and illness. An already stressful and complex situation with significant health risks also is being exacerbated by financial strain. The cost-of-living crisis and the rising cost of electricity, fuel and food have also compounded the situation. Calls to the Alzheimer Society of Ireland's national helpline that related to financial advice and concerns more than doubled in the first three months of 2023 compared with the previous year.

It is clear that our neglect of carers is having a real impact, not only on carers and their loved ones but also on the health service. Successive Governments have spent years expecting carers to almost pop out of thin air but we have reached a point now where almost 10% of all older people who are approved for home care support do not have a carer. The Government's failure to address shortcomings in care means that many people who can and should be cared for in their own homes are pushed into the health service, into hospitals and into nursing homes. We all signed up several years ago to the policy of the right care, in the right place at the right time. Yet even in the midst of a hospital bed emergency, we have people in beds who should be at home and we have people on trolleys waiting for the beds. While the crisis is bad now, I do not need to tell this House that the demographics are also changing. There is no doubt that the proposed referendum represents a clear opportunity for change. However, as this motion makes clear, the issues faced by carers are both wide-ranging and very deep-rooted. If we are sincere in transforming the experience of carers in Ireland, then the Government must ensure that carers themselves receive the care and support they need and greatly deserve. I am happy to support the motion today. I commend Senator O'Loughlin and all the members of the caucus on their work on it.