Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said he believes that the pressure on carers is getting worse and that over 7,000 people waiting on a Housing Adaptation Grant, a Mobility Aids Grant, or Housing Aid for Older People.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are around 60,000 people in receipt of a Carer\u2019s Allowance, but there are an estimated 200,000 family Carers right across the State. Cuts to the Carer\u2019s Allowance, to Carer\u2019s Benefit and to the Respite Care grant are causing huge hardship for many families.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn opposition Fine Gael and Labour quite rightly opposed similar cuts by Fianna F\u00e1il but then embraced austerity and imposed further cuts when they came to power in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2013 the Respite Care Grant was cut by almost one fifth and the Household Benefits Package has been slashed by 40 per cent since 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this time the Government has re-orientated healthcare to move disabled, elderly or sick citizens out of hospitals and into institutionalised care and back into the community. This is in part
\nbecause of the crisis in Hospital Emergency Departments, where there is a shortage of beds because of delayed discharge patients. It also because community care and care in the home financially costs the State a lot less.<\/p>\n\u201cIn tandem with this policy the Government is failing to provide a satisfactory income for fulltime carers or support services for those in their care.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to the Carers\u2019 Association, there are over 7,000 people waiting on a Housing Adaptation Grant, Mobility Aids Grant or Housing Aid for Older People. This is causing huge hardship and putting families and their loved ones in the impossible position of having to live without access to a bath or proper toilet facilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany families also face an increasingly uphill struggle to access support services in particular speech and language therapy which is so essential for their development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are almost 9,000 older people, people with disabilities, or medical conditions on the housing waiting list.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder Fianna F\u00e1il, and then under Fine Gael and Labour, over one and a half million home help hours have been withdrawn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Crowe continued:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the National Carers Strategy 2012 the Government promised that: \u2018Carers will be recognised and respected as key care partners. They will be supported to maintain their own health and well-being and to care with confidence. They will be empowered to participate as fully as possible in economic and social life\u2019. This hasn’t happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact of government cuts to key supports for Carers means that it has failed to deliver on these commitments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy discussions with carers have revealed that they are simply not receiving the support that they are entitled to expect from the State. They have to fight for every benefit and support. They speak of
\nspending endless hours trying to fill in forms and negotiate red tape, and of feeling isolated and lonely.<\/p>\n\u201cThis is just wrong, particularly when we consider the vital role which carers fulfil every single day. Carers Ireland estimates that each family carer saves the HSE in the order of \u20ac72,500 per year\u00a0through the care they provide to their loved ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the State it is estimated that each year family Carers provide \u20ac4 billion worth of care and support to people who are ill, frail or suffer from disabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shouldn’t be just about saving money it should be about cherishing all of our citizens equally and creating an inclusive society.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurely its way past the time that the raw deal experienced by carers and their loved ones is ended and a new supportive system was introduced. We need to reward and acknowledge the work of carers, and stop increasing the barriers and cutting essential services that allow them to carry\u00a0out their essential work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has said he believes that the pressure on carers is getting worse and that over 7,000 people waiting on a Housing Adaptation Grant, a Mobility Aids Grant, or Housing Aid for Older People. Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said: \u201cThere are around 60,000 people in receipt of a Carer\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,71,44,166],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austerity","category-carers-allowance","category-health","category-hse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2118"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2124,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2118\/revisions\/2124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}