Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 31 Mar 2021

Goere maith agathe, Cahirleach, and I'm sharing with Deputy David Cullinan. So at the beginning of this debate, the Minister for Health described family carers as the backbone of caring in our state. So I want to put on the record some of the words of the backbone of care in our state. I'm so fed up and worn out from fighting for the basic rights of my daughter. With so little support, I live in a constant state of distress and worry for my child, and I regularly cry myself to sleep at night. I don't get a break, but I'm at breaking point. Who will look after my elderly parents if I get COVID? At the end of the day, carers aren't part of the Old Boys Network, so we don't get the deals and bonuses that the government seems happy to hand out to their buddies. These are the words, the experiences of family carers who are amongst the best and the most decent people in our society. And yet, for far too long, they have been abandoned by the state and forgotten, certainly during this pandemic. It's been a very difficult year for everyone, but now is the moment to turn the page on how family carers are treated by the state. And our plan, the plan proposed in this motion, is simply designed to give carers a break, ensuring that they are prioritised for vaccination, increasing their access to respite and improving supports, including financial supports. The work that family carers do is tough, it's exhausting, there's no clocking in and clocking out, they are at work every hour of the day, and there are no words to describe the importance of their work. Done with such dignity and love, behind closed doors, they move mountains and they perform small miracles every day. And though the work of family carers is the work of compassion and kindness, family carers are workers. They are frontline health and social care workers who save the state an estimated 20 billion euros every year. And yet, they are left behind, they are ignored lots of tea and sympathy, but when it comes to real respect, in the form of support and services, family carers are forgotten by government time and again. I believe this constant neglect comes from a fundamental dysfunctionality, the cruel way in which the state treats its most vulnerable people. Instead of government prioritising vulnerable citizens and their family, what they get is a hostile government, hostile departments compiling dossiers on them in an effort to undermine legal cases against the state. And when the state has such warped priorities, is it really any wonder that people with disabilities and their carers have to fight literally tooth and nail for proper supports and services? It is no surprise at all. During the pandemic, when services were either withdrawn or curtailed and the virus cut off support of family and friends, carers were left trapped and isolated, fighting to keep their loved ones safe. As their loved ones with additional needs regressed during the lockdown, the frustration, the worry, the fear has been tangible for these families. And their sense of abandonment has really crystallised around that issue of vaccination. Because after months of hardship, the news of vaccinations brought just that chink of hope and relief for many family carers. But it came literally as a punch in the gut for family carers that they were not to be prioritised for vaccination. The refusal to afford family carers priority boggled, boggled the mind and begged fundamental questions of this government. And they asked very reasonably who will care for their loved one should they become sick with this virus. Yesterday, we discovered that family carers definitively will not get the priority that they deserve. And this has been a kick in the teeth to them. Not alone that, but family carers will be joined by childcare workers, by special needs assistants, by teachers, by Gardaí, by those that work in retail and transport. In other words, the very frontline heroes that went above and beyond over the past 12 months. The people that we saluted and acknowledged for keeping society on the move, for keeping us safe. They are now to be set aside. They are now to be set aside. They are the people that we have for the future. They are now to be set aside. They are now to be set aside. This is a slap in the face. And the truth is that you've changed your vaccination strategy simply because you did not have your work done. Simply because the government and the state failed to provide the correct mechanisms to roll out an effective and safe vaccination strategy. That's the truth of the matter. And frontline workers will now pay the price for that. And family carers will again be set aside and left aside. The minister has indicated that he will and that the government will not oppose the motion that we have brought before the House. But we're asking much more of that than that of you. We want you to support this motion. We want you to go further than that again. And ensure that all of the provisions set out in our plan are in fact realised. Because it's time to change the present and indeed it's time to change the future for the hundreds of thousands of family carers in Ireland. And if we're prepared to work together we can do that. We can move from a situation of neglect to one where family carers are truly valued. And when somebody asks the question, who cares for the carers? Well then the answer should very simply be, all of us do. So I'm asking every single TD to back this plan. and to ensure that this plan is implemented. I'm asking you in government in particular to now show up for family carers by urgently implementing the measures that we as a Dáil will agree here this morning.