Twenty long-serving carers, who between them have provided almost 800 years of care for their loved ones, were honoured by President Michael D Higgins at a ceremony in Dublin yesterday.

Families caring for vulnerable relatives with serious mental and physical disabilities are being stripped of vital State supports despite the advice of doctors.

Basic supports to keep people with high dependency care needs at home must be provided before a patient is moved from hospital, the Carers Association is insisting.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has revealed he personally knew of people with motor neurone disease who were unable to respond to the Government’s botched medical card review due to the severity of their condition.

Seven out of 10 family carers are worried that their dependents may be at risk of malnutrition.

A teenager with a rare medical condition who minds her severely autistic younger brother and his assistance dog, Paddy, is Ireland’s Young Carer of the Year.

Cork Carer of the Year Mary McDonnell says she will keep on shouting out on behalf of people like herself who are doing the State some service and getting very little recognition for it.

Charges for prescription medicines for medical card holders are to increase by 66%.

Two mothers who joined a carers’ protest outside the Dáil over respite cuts last week, have won back transport services for their two profoundly disabled daughters.

Carers yesterday pleaded with the Government to have a change of heart over cutting essential supports that enable them to care for their loved ones.

The Carers Association is appealing for the public's support to pressure the Government to reverse the respite care grant cut.

More than 800 children under the age of four are acting as unpaid family carers due to chronic long-term State service gaps.

The Government has halved the budget for providing personal security alarms to the elderly, despite a spate of recent attacks on older people in their own homes.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has been urged to give the carer’s allowance to all 9,000 people on waiting lists as part of an “amnesty” to clear chronic backlogs.

Around 200 family carers are taking part in another protest outside Leinster House over budget cuts.

Pressure is already mounting on Government to reverse its 20% cut to “lifeline” respite support for carers, after the move was slammed as a “back-door attack on disability” which flies in the face of promises to protect the service.

The Small Firms Association have welcomed the fact that the Government has not increased the direct cost of employment to employers, but expressed concern at the elimination of the employer redundancy rebate.

A group of seven charity networks and federations are warning that public and social services are beyond sustainable.

To add to Victoria White’s piece (Irish Examiner, Sept 6) in addition to the 700,000 hour cuts to home help hours there was an earlier cut of 700,000, and in addition home helps are told not to talk to their patients.

The Department of Health has conceded there are no plans in the foreseeable future to regulate the private homecare sector.

Almost 2,000 family carers are under the age of 10, census figures have shown.

Parents of children with special needs are taking to the streets of Dublin and Cork today to highlight cuts to allowances.

A number of advocacy groups in the country are considering launching a national campaign against what they deem to be unfair cutbacks of a vital welfare benefit.

No cuts to carers payments and a national carers' strategy - that's what carers are asking the Government for today.

The Carers Association will today meet with newly elected TD's to highlight the plight of family carers.

The Carers Association is urging family carers to get involved in lobbying the Government for a better life for carers.

Some 82% of carers say they have been affected by cutbacks in the health budget and almost a quarter say the overburden of work has left them with physical disabilities.

OLDER people are being urged to demand better healthcare from politicians knocking on their doors in the run-up to the general election.

Older people are being urged to demand better healthcare from politicians knocking on their doors in the run-up to the general election.

Family carers are demanding their voices be heard by the incoming Government.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen tonight said there is an urgent need to look at new laws on home care services amid reports of shocking treatment of elderly patients by staff.

The Carers Association is calling on opposition parties to reverse the cuts announced in the Budget, if they get into power.

A senior citizens' lobby group, Older & Bolder, is concerned about the impact of many of the measures proposed in the Government’s four-year plan on citizens on lower and fixed incomes.

SHE has already lost two of her children to a rare and devastating disease but brave mother Anne McGrath is now devoting her energy to looking after her 10-year-old daughter who is battling the same condition.

Barnados, St Vincent de Paul, and the Childrens Rights Alliance are among 30 organisations attending a pre-Budget forum today in Dublin.

WHEN Penny Fennessy’s elderly father suffered a stroke she gave up her life in England and moved to the small town of Clogheen in Tipperary to care for him.

MARIA MAHER’S life changed forever when her mother was forced to use a wheelchair following an accident at her Cork family home seven years ago.

The 'Older & Bolder' campaign has said that a cut to the state pension would be "an assault on vulnerable older people".

IRELAND’S elderly population needs to fight plans to extend the retirement age unless concerns over ageism and training for older people in the workplace are addressed, according to a new report.

Children who care for family members are being forced into adult roles prematurely as almost three quarters of young carers begin caring from the age of nine.

THEY have tried seeing the funny side but, no matter which way you look at it, being told to repay almost €87,000 to the state is no laughing matter.

“MY mother often says to me would you not be better off putting me into a home, I’m too much of a burden on you. We don’t want to do that because that is the end of the road.”