Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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1479. To ask the Minister for Health if he will consider granting young carers a minimum of 20 days respite per year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13746/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland’s 2012 National Carers' Strategy sets out government policy for those who care for older people, children and adults with an illness, disability, or mental health condition.

The Strategy contains actions to implement the following national goals:

- Recognise the value and contribution of carers and promote their inclusion in decisions relating to the person they are caring for;

- Support carers to manage their physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing;

- Support carers to care with confidence through the provision of adequate information, training, services and supports;

- Empower carers to participate as fully as possible in economic and social life.

The National Carers' Strategy covers carers of all ages, including young carers. The Strategy acknowledges that while caring has many positive aspects, in some cases it can have adverse impacts on children and young people's social, educational, emotional and health needs, and on their future life opportunities.

One of the priority action areas in the Strategy is to enable carers of all ages to access respite. Respite care enables carers to access employment, education, leisure and training opportunities. Very importantly, a break from caring can lessen the psychological and emotional stress that can be experienced by family carers and can enable family carers to continue in their caring role.

The Strategy recommends that family carers have access to a range of respite services to meet their needs including in-home, residential and emergency respite services. The provision of regular respite care has been shown to delay or prevent the admission of service users to long term care residential facilities while also supporting hospital avoidance. Access to respite care is based on both the needs of the service user and their carer and can take place within the home, in daycare or extended daycare, or in a residential care unit managed by the HSE, voluntary agencies or private providers.

The HSE's older persons' and disability services provide a range of respite care services for service users and their carers. This includes both planned and emergency respite. While the HSE endeavours to support people as much as possible, the resource is subject to availability and is prioritised based on need. The resource is not allocated based on the age of the family carer but on the need identified.

Granting carers of any age a minimum of 20 days respite per year would be subject to a variety of considerations and limitations, including resource availability, the availability of appropriately trained staff and respite facilities, and the assessed needs of the service user and their carer(s). There are no plans to consider such provision at present.