Irish Examiner View: It’s time to support the forgotten frontline

The country’s 500,000 carers save the State an estimated €20bn — they should not have to advocate for services.

Activists from Carrick-on-Suir demonstrate outside Leinster House last September to save the St Brigid’s Hospital, Tipperary, to protest the closure of respite and palliative care services. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

It can be difficult to see how the seemingly remote workings of Government affect our everyday lives. A word like ‘legislation’, for instance, conjures up an image of something that is remote, formal, and legalistic, yet its reach is felt in the very grain of our daily experience.

We have seen that, again and again, as the pandemic laid bare the cracks in Government policy, or highlighted the lack of it. Nowhere was that more evident than in the care sector, where families are at breaking point because of a lack of access to respite care.

Yesterday, Family Carers Ireland launched its annual scorecard, highlighting that “far more needs to be done to support family carers”. 

Of the 18 commitments to carers in the programme for government, not a single one was achieved. On that account, the Government scored a big fat zero.

While there was some progress in six areas, most received a score of ‘no progress’ or ‘regressive’.

Those words are damning, but it is easy to become inured to the contents of a report. Instead, it is vital to link the failures of Government to the hardships they cause in real people’s lives. Carers have spoken of how lack of access to respite has left them mentally and physically exhausted.

Earlier this week, some of them spoke on RTÉ Radio to describe what that was like. Carer Sinead Tighe spoke of her need to “tirelessly work away on emails” to get respite. 

“You’re highlighting your situation and trying to show the extreme gravity of being at home,” she said. "Getting slapped, hit, head-butted — you do need a break."

Carers should not have to advocate for services. Family Carers Ireland has already shown that the country’s 500,000 carers save the State an estimated €20bn, but this is about more than money; it is about providing basic care for our citizens.

Marion O’Sullivan, Cork, who cares for her brother Stephen, said he has regressed during lockdown, losing some skills such as the ability to tell the time and dress himself.

Others say that, without basic support, they will be forced to put their relatives into institutional care, and call on the State to provide 20 days of respite per year for carers, in the same way that other workers get annual leave entitlement.

This is a reasonable ask. Minister of State for Disability Anne Rabbitte has openly acknowledged that, while admitting that consistent access to services and respite was not good before the pandemic. Respite is her priority, she said.

The minister has proven to be sympathetic and straight-talking, though she has her work cut out to achieve anything in a health system that continues to be resistant to change.

Separately, the Health Information and Quality Authority yesterday called for immediate reform and regulation of Ireland’s homecare services. The watchdog said it wanted to provide the “right care, in the right place, at the right time”, a vision in line with Sláintecare — though that reform programme is still very far from being implemented.

Whatever the path forward, it must put the people affected at its centre.