Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)

I thank Deputy Tully for the motion. I am glad to speak on it because I feel as though I am speaking for the army of invisible people who work 24-7, relying on the extremely modest carer's allowance, with many unable to make ends meet. They are kept under constant scrutiny by the State for that payment, a State that seems more intent on catching them out in some way than helping them, valuing them or relieving them of their caring duties with sufficient respite. It is hard to credit that three quarters of carers have never received respite at all. They must just carry on. Half of them pay privately for services that should be readily and publicly available.

In my constituency, Kildare North, I have had a long involvement with two outstanding carers, Aisling McNiffe, who fights day in, day out for her son Jack, and Lourdes Sanchez, who fights day in, day out for her son Conor. These women are exhausted, not only by the lack of services but by the frequently peevish way the State behaves towards all carers, quizzing them, testing them and begrudging them the slightest allowance or assistance, demanding endless form-filling while, at the same time, overseeing billions in overruns in public projects such as the national disgrace of the national children's hospital. Neither of those women's sons will ever see the inside of that completed hospital because they are adults. Aisling and Lourdes are not looking for the Earth. They are looking only to establish their sons' right as citizens from childhood to adulthood. The scrutiny and peevishness must cease. The actual care of our carers must start. Immediately, the means test must be relaxed to give them breathing space and living space.

I have also been dealing with a mother who has gone back to college to make a better life for herself and her child. Her caring has not stopped. Her daughter's needs have not stopped. She studies while her daughter is in school, with no change to her caring but she has been cut off. This narrow, mean thinking must change, because if we do not care for carers, who will, and who will care for the people they care for then?

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