Carers in limbo - Denial of basic rights is insulting

For anyone to think that a son or daughter returning home from abroad to look after an infirm parent is engaging in a form of welfare tourism is not only absurd and insulting but also dangerous.

Penny Fennessy returned home to care for her 63-year-old father, who suffers from the effects of a stroke. They are now forced to live on his old-age pension and an emergency welfare payment, as she has been refused a carer’s allowance, due to the habitual residence condition introduced in 2004.

There is something radically wrong with a system that denies €200 a week to a woman who comes home from abroad to look after her father. If he had to go into a nursing home, this would cost society much more and the help would not be nearly as beneficial to him.