Michael Collins demands action for 67,000 young carers

Thank you, Chairman. I will also be supporting this motion for young carers and thank the Labour Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is astonishing to think that we have 67,000 young carers in this country and we have given them nothing but lip service over the last couple of years, which is an injustice to those young people. Many of them were in the gallery here today and outside earlier in the AV room and I think that we need to show them the respect that they deserve, because looking after someone and looking after someone actually for zero, for nothing, is a very unfair situation for a young person to find themselves in, and many, as I said, 67,000 have found themselves in that situation. We as a State need to step up to the mark and show the respect they deserve and put measures in place. We can see that the system of care in this country is broken, and we find that right down across the line. When we means test carers loans, that is actually telling you how out of touch a government is and continues to punish people who have saved the state millions of euros in this country. As I said, we have 67,000 young people. How many other adults are caring for loved ones at home and, as I said, are saving the state millions, but are literally being ignored by the state? Instead, the first thing you need to do, especially when there was, you know, in a country where it is supposed to be led that there is money there at this present time, was to abolish the means test. That would give people a chance to be at least recognised in some small ways. It is not a lot of money. We are not talking about, you know, 1,000 euros here, where someone is maybe 250, 300 euros. It is small money, but it is recognition for what they do. Those loved ones would be in a hospital, in a nursing home, requiring this type of care only for these people. Minister, you need to understand here that changes need to be made immediately. I have spoken already this week in relation to section 39. I actually welcomed the pay increase of 9.25 per cent in the work relations agreement last week, but then we find out after that people who care for loved ones, who care for families and who care for residents in nursing homes will not get that increase. That is very unfair. I have spoken to a lot. I have spoken to Ty Daly and I have spoken to different people this week, who are badly, you know, hurt by this decision. These are people that, you know, show the hand of love every day of the week to people inside the nursing homes. I saw it myself in Bishop's Court last week, because I was invited to meet the residents there and the staff and the owners. But it does not matter if it is Bishop's Court, it does not matter if it is the Baltimore Residential Care Unit, it does not matter if it is in Clonkilty or Germany. All these people are providing a fantastic service. And the bottom line is here, the community hospital staff, who do excellent jobs, very much the same as the nursing home staff do, are being adequately, at least being respected and adequately paid. But the person that does something, does the same work in a nursing home, is not being paid, in relation to pay parity and not being paid a fair income. And it is a cause of deep hurt, and rightly so too, because these people, as I said, I saw the care last week, because some of the staff were able to tell me exactly who the person was. And there is a lot of people in Bishop's Court, a lot of residents in Bishop's Court do tell me who they are, where they are from. I am not sure about my time, Michael. Ten seconds. No, but I appreciate, Minister, that has to be looked into. It is very, very important. All right.