‘We are bottom of the list again’

“I AM just so mad, we’re at the bottom of the list again,” was the furious reaction of a carer from the home county of the Finance Minister last night.

Furious with the meagre scraps the Budget had to offer, Ann Hughes, 57, from Tullamore, Co Offaly, said the increase in her carer’s allowance would make little difference to her life or that of her autistic and intellectually disabled 26-year-old daughter, Debbie.

On the increase in her carer’s allowance from €153.60 to €180, she said: “That is around €27 more a week. I’m hardly going to go mad. He is not even taking into account the cost of living here.”

Ann said after the much-heralded Budget, she saw nothing getting easier for herself or her daughter.

“Every June, we got €800, last year we got €1,000. From what I can grasp here, our yearly bonus is gone up to €1,200,” she said. “We are bottom of the list again.”

Ann said there was no real mention of practical aid for people with disabilities in the Budget.

As it stands, Ann said she has had to make do with the cheapest of every brand of food and ban luxury items just to survive.

“I am not happy at all. What is making it even worse is I only get two respite nights a month from looking after Debbie. I am looking for two nights a week at my age.”

Ann said there was only one respite house that caters for 45 clients in the Tullamore area and there was no mention for more funding for respite care houses in the Budget.

She said funding for two or three more respite houses in the Tullamore area would make a huge difference for carers.

Ann, who receives around €330 a week in carer’s allowance and disability benefits for her daughter, said caring for Debbie was hard work.

She said she had thought Offaly man Brian Cowen was more caring than his predecessor in the post, Charlie McCreevy.

“I thought Brian Cowen would have given more for people like myself - he is a local man, I am in his office every other week highlighting the problems,” she said.

“I can assure you I will be looking for a face-to-face appointment with him.”

Ann said the meagre allowance carers are paid saves the Government a fortune as they would otherwise have to pay for costly care places in residential homes.

“Prisoners have more rights than my child, they have spent a fortune on Mountjoy. How is it they can afford to do that for those there to be punished and they won’t do it for those poor misfortunate people?” she said.

“I think we have the most uncaring Government ever, they have blown money down the drain. Think of what it would have done for our kids.”