Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for being here today. As my colleague, Senator Seery Kearney said, it is an absolute privilege to be speaking on a constitutional amendment. It is an honour to be able to stand here and have our voice heard on this debate along with so many people across the country.

The Irish Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, dates back to 1937. As we all know it covers the fundamental law of the State. It is also about the rights of all of us as citizens of this country. Consent is needed and this is why we are having this debate. This is why it will go to a constitutional referendum. Regarding this 40th amendment, the Constitution currently states, “by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved”.It also states:

The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.

As the Minister mentioned in his opening statement, the intention of the Government is to recognise the role of caring and to replace this with text such as Article 42B where:

The State recognises that the provision of care, by members of a family to one another by reason of the bonds that exist among them, [and it] gives to Society a support without which the common good cannot be achieved and shall strive to support such provision.

As a representative and an Irish citizen, I speak to my own experience of looking after a loved one together with family members. Many people in Ireland have experience of looking after loved ones, and of course, family members looking after children or, in my particular case, older family members. In Ireland today, we have the highest ever population, excellent long-life expectancy, and we are looking at healthy and active ageing. I was so fortunate to have family members living to the age of 90 and with minds so much better than my own. The report titled Health in Ireland: Key Trends 2022 showed and indicated that Irish women in this country are living to an average age of 84 years of age. Again, for Irish men, the average age is 81. Therefore, when we look at Ireland now compared to the Ireland of 1937, our State has to acknowledge at a very practical level the additional supports that of course are needed to support family members who care for loved ones. These loved ones live long, healthy and active lives but also may have many complex conditions that require care in the home. When we speak about caring, this amendment speaks to how we as a Government and as representatives are striving to support such provision. The Minister mentioned in his opening statement that this amendment is to recognise caring as a public good. I highlight that from what I have seen in my experience, and I am aware much has been done around pension provision for long-term carers particularly for the Minister, Deputy Humphrey's area of social protection as well, there are so many areas we need to improve. They are already there but when it comes to carers leave across many roles and sectors of employment, we need to look at how that is managed. There is allocation for carers leave already in many of our public sector areas and this is taken into account. However, can we stand over the fact that this happens across the board? Young people may not have come across this yet but there will come a time in nearly everyone's life when they will be spending time looking after a loved one and have to put their lives on hold in order to do that and we as a Government and as representatives in these Houses of the Oireachtas have to fight to ensure people are able to take that leave when needed.

I mention the access to home-help hours. Again, as a Government, we have looked to increase the number of home help hours but there is so much more that needs to be done to support families in the home to look after loved ones. We speak about independent living and being able to live for as long as possible in our homes but in order to do that there are practical considerations and we have to consider how to do that. Part of that is home help hours and part of it is supporting public health nurses in order that they are able to go out and acknowledge there is a need, also for people who live on their own. If we do not do that and intercede at an early stage, this striving to ensure we are supporting caring is going to fall short. We are doing a lot of work in the Department of Health under the Minister, Deputy Donnelly. I would also like to speak about the delivery of care in the home, and the Minister might speak to how this affects all Departments, when we say we strive to support this as a Government. It is across all Departments, local authorities and local government. How are we ensuing that people can access those home adaptation grants that allow people to live longer in their homes? That is another part of this. There are so many elements to it. We are now inserting this into the Constitution which shows the Government is going to make changes. It already has but it has to show how it is going to improve. What is its ambition here? How are we going to support the fact that people are living longer now in Ireland? I am speaking particularly to the role of carers looking after older people and to acknowledge that.

I would also like to acknowledge, as we are talking about carers, the role of palliative care, hospices and so on. The two areas at which I am looking relate particularly to the Department of Health and the Department of housing and local authorities, namely, the role in delivering mobile care and telehealth and how we as a Government will advance that. I am speaking on many different areas here but the ambition we have in this constitutional amendment ensures that we have to drive forward with an electronic patient record and can deliver digital health and ehealth to the home so that people can access health in the home, can have a remote monitor in the home to check for Afib and can access to the latest technology in the home so they can stay in the home. That is what this is about. It is also about ensuing carers have the supports and are not having to go to GPs or consultants and sit in waiting rooms or emergency departments for 24-hours. It is about ensuring this does not happen. When I am talking about this amendment, I will be fighting about the practical aspects of what I want to see this and future Governments achieve. To me, it is about the practical supports with which we as a State and a country are supporting people to be able to live and stay within the home and about supporting the carers in order to do that, using every measure at our disposal. That includes technology as well and ensuing people can live as long as possible in as healthy and active a way as possible in the home and that we are supporting carers in how they do that. Carers are burnt out. They are at high levels of exhaustion. I deal with it every day in our office in Ballinasloe, and Senator Mullen would know this as well. We live in areas, particularly rural areas, where older people live. I see this as an ambitious target that we are setting for Government. This striving to ensure we are acknowledging caring as a key role is for Ireland now and in the decades ahead.