Who cares for the carers?

My wife and I looked after my mother, who developed vascular dementia at the ripe old age of 90, caring for her at home until her death on Jan 1 — a day short of her 96th birthday.

So I listened with mounting incredulity to the whole debacle involving HSE director-general designate Tony O’Brien and the Health Minister as the details of the latest round of ‘slash ‘n’ burn cuts were thrashed out.

Even the mere hint of the 600,000-hour cut in home-help hours, as well as a reduction of 200 homecare packages, and a €10m reduction in hours for personal assistants, (albeit since denied by the minister), left me incredulous.

The net economic benefit to the Government of ‘caring’ would therefore be estimated to be around €2.5bn per annum.

I heard Mr O’Brien on Radio 1 while on my way to being treated to lunch in a beautiful restaurant with a garden set close to the sea. The sun shone, the food was beautiful, the company lovely. A couple sat opposite us who were no longer in the first flush of youth. They patiently spooned food into their two disabled adult daughters’ mouths, tenderly wiping away anything that overflowed.

I am not sure what the ‘new man’ at the HSE earns, but his predecessor reputedly earned €322,000. The beleaguered Minister for Health James Reilly earns in the region of €170,000.

Unless it has changed since January, the carer’s allowance is €204 per week.

Brendan Lyons

Skeagh

Skibbereen