Family carers should be paid at least €190 a week, urges group
There are about 150,000 family carers in Ireland; one-third of which are full-time carers, but just one in eight receives €139 a week.
The Carers Association wants the Government to pay carers who spend about 40 hours a week minding loved ones at least €190.
The payment, which is equivalent to the State’s nursing home subvention, is part of the association's national strategic plan published yesterday.
Chief executive Enda Egan said they would be campaigning to have the new payment introduced before 2007.
Mr Egan said the Carer’s Allowance did not recognise the work being done by carers. “It’s a supplementary income payment that just about keeps them off the breadline,” he said.
Junior Minister Ivor Callely, who attended the launch of the plan, said the role of carers had only begun to be fully acknowledged in recent years.
The association’s three-year plan includes a range of incentives to encourage family carers to continue looking after their loved ones. The association claims carers are saving the State €1.6 billion a year and that a minimal investment to recognised their work would lead to actual savings in the health budget.
Mr Egan called for the medical card to be extended to all carers,
The association recently appointed Laois GAA football manager Mick O’Dwyer and TV personality Mary Kennedy as patrons.
