According to Deputy Willie Penrose, Family and Social Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin should keep her hands off the carers allowance as the Government tries to dig its way out of a financial hole of it’s own making.
“As chairperson of the Oireachtas Committee on Social and Family Affairs in 2003, I was closely involved in the preparation of the report that proposed major improvements in the level of payment to carers and significant advances have been made in the interim. Now it seems that Mary Hanafin is thinking of targeting carers by reducing the amount of money they receive. I would strongly advise her to think again,” he said.
According to Deputy Penrose, there are some 150,000 carers across the country saving vast amounts of money for the State and the vital role they play in local community health care has yet to be fully recognised.
He went on to say that it has been estimated that by providing these services, carers are saving the exchequer somewhere in the region of €2 billion, which as it happens, is the amount of money that the Government is seeking to save in its latest round of cuts.
“Carers are already performing a huge service for their families, their communities and for the Government,” said Deputy Penrose, “and it would be foolhardy in the extreme for Mary Hanafin to tinker with this now. In fact I believe that notwithstanding the serious situation that the public finances are now in, we should be looking to further increase the allowances that carers get, rather than rowing back on advances that carers have made.”
Deputy Penrose added that he would be shocked to see that anything of a detrimental nature might be contemplated. He said that any such measure would have a massively negative impact on this group of people, many of whom already make significant personal sacrifices to care for a loved one.
“Carers should be exempted from any suggestion of cutbacks,” he concluded.
