‘I shouldn’t be penalised for choosing to care’

THERESA HULME earns just slightly more than someone on the dole after giving up her job as a clinical psychiatric nurse manager to look after her intellectually disabled older sister.

“I am not asking to be paid for looking after my sister but I should not be penalised for choosing to care for her,” she said.

Theresa, 40, from Tullaroan, Co Kilkenny, gave up her job as a community services manager with RehabCare in Kilkenny to look after Catherine, 43, following the death of their mother, Philomena, two years ago.