Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 20 Mar 2025

Vol. 1064 No. 5

Young Carers: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Mark Wall

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

notes that:

- young carers and children are young people under the age of 18 whose lives are affected in some significant way by the care needs of another family or household member due to their illness, disability, mental health difficulties or problems with drugs or alcohol misuse, and who provide care, or help to provide care, to that person;

- young adult carers are recognised as a separate and distinct group aged 18 to 24, who provide care, assistance or support to another family member on an unpaid basis;

- the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey estimated in 2018 that there were approximately 67,000 young carers between the ages of 10-17 in Ireland, with the overall number higher now;

- the experience of being a young carer can have a profound impact on educational outcomes, mental health and life opportunities;

- young carers report poorer emotional health and wellbeing outcomes and lower life satisfaction compared to their non-caring peers; and

- more than one third of young carers have reported being bullied at school, and that one in four young carers have gone to school or bed hungry because there was not enough food at home;

further notes that:

- the Department of Education, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth have no dedicated programmes to support the specific needs of young carers;

- there is no recognition of the unpaid work of young carers in the social protection system;

- the rules covering Carer's Allowance and other income supports can act as a barrier for young adult carers accessing, or continuing in, further and higher education, training or employment; and

- the first National Carers' Strategy was published in 2012 and has not been refreshed since, and a new national strategy is now needed that specifically recognises the needs of young carers and young adult carers;

recognises that:

- the Programme for Government – Securing Ireland's Future commits to a range of measures to support carers, including the phasing out of the means test for Carer's Allowance; and

- there is no mention of young carers or young adult carers in the Programme for Government, or commitments to improve supports or services for this hidden population who are often invisible to educators, employers, health professionals and society; and

calls on the Government to:

- establish a cross departmental working group on young carers, and designate a Department with lead responsibility;

- commit to developing a new dedicated programme of supports and services for young carers and young adult carers, through a new national strategy for carers;

- improve the identification of young carers at the earliest opportunity, so that services can be adequately resourced to ensure young carers can access the additional support they need;

- ensure that the Ministers in the Department of Education, and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, recognise their responsibilities to young carers and develop appropriate support programmes;

- put in place bespoke targeted programmes in schools, to recognise and support the specific needs and circumstances of young carers;

- provide pathways and programmes for young adult carers to access or remain in further and higher education, or other training, while also recognising their caring duties;

- review the impact of social protection rules on young adult carers seeking to continue their education or begin careers in their chosen field;

- recognise the unpaid work of young carers, with guaranteed respite days, the introduction of a young carer grant and educational bursaries, dedicated funding for counselling or psychological support, and increased carer payments;

- provide additional home care supports, so young carers have more time for themselves; and

- publish a comprehensive plan outlining the annual increases that will be made to the income disregard for Carer's Allowance, towards phasing it out over the lifetime of this Government.

I welcome the Minister. I am very happy to bring forward this motion on young carers in Ireland on behalf of the Labour Party. I want to begin by thanking representatives of Family Carers Ireland and the young carers who delivered a briefing today for Members in the audiovisual room. It was powerful to hear at first hand about their experiences and the impact providing care can have. These young carers are children and young people under the age of 18 whose lives are affected in the most significant way by the care needs of another family member or household member due to their illness, disability, mental health difficulties or problems with drugs or alcohol misuse, and who provide care or help to provide care, to that person. There are also young adult carers who are recognised as a separate group and are aged between 18 and 24 years.

I had the privilege earlier today of listening to the stories of Sarah Ann, Benjamin, Conor and Lucy’s experience of being a young carer. Anyone listening to these stories earlier today will have been truly moved. They spoke about love for their family, of sacrifice, resilience, loneliness and the toll caring can have when there is not support. Sarah Ann spoke about how the first thing she thought in the morning is not about her friends or school, it is what needs to be done. She said that there is no time to fall apart or no time to be a kid. Her brother Benjamin spoke about the bullying he experienced. He told us how he did not want to be a burden on his parents, pushing it all in until he could not do so any more. Lucy, another young carer, is 14 and helps care for her brother, her mam and her dad. Lucy describes having to grow up faster than her friends because of her caring responsibilities. At only 14 years of age, caring is her priority, not school, even though she gets good grades. Conor is 20 and helps care for his brother who has a condition which causes developmental difficulties. Conor looks after his brother for a few hours or for the odd day, but this can impact his college studies.

These stories are just a small representation of the 67,000 young carers in Ireland today. These four young carers spoke about the love of their family members that they help care for, and while they are not the primary carer, they play a very active role in providing care in these households. Carers like Sarah Ann, Benjamin, Conor and Lucy are faced with difficult questions that no other young person is faced with. Should they be at home helping more? Can they even go to college? I spoke with another young carer today who wants to study nursing when they finish school. Unlike their non-caring peers, this young carer is worried about whether they can even move away from home to study. There are so many young carers who have skills beyond their years due to their caring role. Many like this young person want to go into caring professions, an area that is in a recruitment crisis, and they would thrive due to their experience of providing care. There are young carers who are having to trade time with their friends or other activities due to their caring responsibilities. These issues are endemic amongst many young carers today.

These young carers are a hidden population to many teachers, employers, health professionals, the Government and society. We all know these young carers, they are often the child sitting patiently in a waiting room while their sibling is with the doctor, the young adult who failed a college exam because there is not enough time to study and care for their mother. There is not a doubt in the minds of these young people that they would continue to provide care to their family members if needed, but they should not have to. Young carers and all the mothers, fathers, grandparents and other carers out there save the State an estimated €20 billion in unpaid care work each year. That is close to the annual budget of the HSE. They are the invisible backbone of our health service. Caring households are providing 19 million hours of unpaid care work every week.

These families are faced with additional costs due to caring. Two in five have a household income of less than €30,000 a year and nearly 70% find it difficult to make ends meet. According to Family Carers Ireland, of those struggling financially, 29% are cutting back on essentials such as food and heat, 49% have had to pay privately for services that should be publicly available and 72% of carers have never received respite. We need to acknowledge the immense contribution young carers bring to society and we also need to acknowledge the fact that in many cases, these young carers would not be providing such care if the right supports were in place to help their loved to begin with. There are thousands of children who are overdue assessments of need and thousands more are without appropriate school places.

These stories of young carers show a profound impact on their educational outcomes, mental health and life opportunities. Young carers tend to receive lower leaving certificate grades in comparison with their peers. They are less likely to go to further or higher education and more likely to have their choices limited to being close to home. Young carers report poorer emotional health and well-being outcomes and lower life satisfaction compared with their non-caring peers. Over 90% of young carers feel stressed, 56% feel they cannot cope and 80% are at risk of depression. More than one third have reported being bullied at school and one in four young carers have gone to school or bed hungry because there was not enough food at home.

Despite the significant care work taken on by many young carers, Government has no plan or strategy to support their specific needs. Our social protection system fails to recognise their value, as the rules on carer’s allowance and other income supports are a major hurdle for young people in accessing or continuing in further and higher education, training or employment. Like many Deputies, I have read the programme for Government over and over. While it is disappointing that Government is going to take so long to abolish the means test for the carer’s allowance, it has also forgotten young carers and young adult carers. There is an urgent need for a new national strategy for carers that specifically recognises the needs of young carers.

It is only through Family Carers Ireland that these young carers have any real support outside of their family. The organisation supports over 1,000 young carers through membership and a range of programmes and services. However, it cannot continue to do this alone. The support it provides barely reaches all those young carers who need vital support. The Labour Party's motion would address these issues. It calls on Government to establish a cross-departmental working group on young carers and designate a Department with lead responsibility, commit to develop a new dedicated programme of supports and services for young carers and young adult carers through a new national strategy for carers, ensure that Ministers in the Departments of Education and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth recognise their responsibilities to young carers and develop appropriate support programmes and recognise the unpaid work of young carers with guaranteed respite days, the introduction of a young carer's grant and educational bursaries, dedicated funding for counselling or psychological support and increased carer payments.

As I have said previously, it is time to shine a light on the young carers in the State who carry out so much work at home. I ask that Members support the motion.

Deputy Ivana Bacik

I am proud to second the motion. I commend my colleague, Deputy Wall, on bringing forward this important motion. I commend and pay tribute to the work of Family Carers Ireland and, in particular, to the work of all the young people engaged in providing care.

As Deputy Wall said, we heard today so many powerful testimonies from young people who themselves are providing care to siblings and family members. These are carers like Lucy, Conor, Benjamin and Sarah Ann who were so eloquent and yet so honest about the impact caring has had on them and their families. They were all very clear that they do not see their caring role as in any way burdensome. They do this for love, and there is nothing burdensome about loving a family member. Those positive feelings of love and those positive feelings around the desire to see dignity for the sibling or family member who requires care shone through from the testimonies of the young people we heard from. However, the problem is that when the State is outsourcing supports and not providing sufficient supports to young carers then caregiving does become physically, emotionally and financially draining. The young carers we heard from spoke about the stress caused for them and their families because there are not sufficient supports in place from the State.

There are very specific impacts from the dereliction of duty. Deputy Wall set out the profile of young adult carers as established by the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. They are receiving lower leaving certificate grades. They are less likely to be able to take up places in further or higher education. They are less financially empowered. Government policy has failed to understand and recognise the stress placed on young carers and as a result, they feel forgotten and it is harder for them to cope.

We need to recognise today the immense contribution made by young carers to society. As Deputy Wall said, we need to ensure that we shine a light on the work they do and that Government policies offer them sufficient support so they can fulfil their true life potential, as can those family members for whom they are providing care. We have heard from so many young carers who have spoken so powerfully about their experience, not just today in the audiovisual room but from young carers who have contacted us over recent days in light of the motion we are bringing forward. One young boy of 11, Noah, asked me to speak about his worries for his younger sister, Willow, who has cerebral palsy. He told me how hard it can be when she becomes unwell. He is very proud of his sister, but he is very worried for his future and for her future when his mum grows older, and he will assume even more caring responsibilities. Another young man told me about the supports he provides for his autistic brother. He said, "I don’t have friends over as my brother doesn’t like people but that’s okay, I understand. It can be hard. Caring can be fun sometimes but sometimes I just want to do normal things that families do." These are powerful testimonies.

I have powerful testimonies from those who see their friends who are young carers who cannot continue on to higher education because of their care roles and responsibilities. These are the real experiences of young carers in Ireland, 67,000 of whom are giving daily supports to the State and to their families.

The State cannot apply a financial penalty to young carers. It cannot see them continue to sacrifice education, job prospects or mental health in pursuit of their caring responsibilities. We must support young carers. We must abolish cruel policies like the means test and we must implement the policies and measures set out so clearly and comprehensively in this motion that will ensure that our young carers get the supports they need, and that their families and those who need care within their families are also adequately supported by the State. We owe it to the young people like Noah, Sarah Ann, Benjamin, Conor and Lucy from who we heard today.

Deputy Ged Nash

In preparing for today's motion, I could not get away from the thought that if tens of thousands of children were working in any other industry in this country unpaid, unrecognised, unsupported and unprotected by the State, it would be an absolute national scandal. Yet, day after day, this is happening in homes the length and breadth of the country where young people are, as my colleagues have said, forced to fill in the gaps left by the State. They do it because they care and, in many cases, because they feel and know the State could not care less.

Take, for example, an eloquent young man who made contact with me recently seeking help in getting carer's allowance. This is a young adult carer in his early 20s who looks after his mother full time. This bright young man was pursuing an education that was to lead him into one of the medical professions. Unsurprisingly, his mother's worsening condition and the increased time he needed to be at home to take care of her made continuing on that path impossible. He also had to turn down the chance to work across the water. This is a young man who sacrificed a lot, but he is not asking for the world. He is just looking for a normal life and the opportunities all of us at that age took for granted. Asked what he needed, he just said, "A little help to get by". So far, and for reasons I cannot get my head around, that little help to get by in the form of carer's allowance has been denied to him. The case is under appeal and I sincerely hope that he will be successful.

This is a double failure by the State. It is a failure to support these young carers and young adult carers, but also a failure to provide State supported care for the adults who have come to depend on them through no fault of their own. As my colleagues set out, the impact of all this on young carers is absolutely profound and acute. In 2023, the Sharing the Caring report from Family Carers Ireland found, as Deputy Wall said, that 80% of young carers are at risk of clinical depression, and more than half feel they simply cannot cope.

What are this new Government's plans to deal with this social emergency? There is not a word about young carers in the programme for Government. There is no recognition of the unpaid work young carers do in our social protection system and the rules governing carer's allowance, and other income supports often act, quite frankly, as barriers to young adult carers accessing or continuing in further education, training or employment. This is the definition of a poverty trap. As this motion calls for, we need a new national strategy for carers, specifically one that recognises the needs of young carers and young adult carers.

We are behind some of our closest neighbours in this regard. Scotland, for example, just last week signed up to what they call the young carers covenant. In recent years, we, in this country, have stopped being innovators in the space of social progress and we need to catch up. We could do so by implementing, for example, this covenant. It is a commitment to a fair future for all young carers and young adult carers and we should look at adopting it in this country. Young carers and young adult carers are not asking for much. They do the work they do out of love. All they are asking for in return is for their futures to be protected and to feel that the structures of the State are wrapped around them in support of their work, not a constant barrier they must butt their heads against relentlessly in order to make any progress.

Deputy Eoghan Kenny

I thank my colleague, Deputy Wall, for the amount of work he has done on this motion, which I really welcome. I welcome those from Family Carers Ireland, who are in the Visitors Gallery, and the carers who spoke to us today. This motion is really important. A huge number of people across the country provide 24-7 dedicated care to family members. I want to take the opportunity to commend every single carer across the country, but in particular young carers.

This motion is seeking the opportunity for young carers to be recognised in this State. There is an obligation now on the Department of Education to provide dedicated programmes of supports specific to the needs of carers. Right now in this country, neither the Department of Education nor the Department of children have dedicated support programmes for young carers in Ireland. We need to see the implementation, as this motion calls for, of bespoke programmes in schools to recognise and support the needs and circumstances of young carers. What is most important in education, and the Minister knows this, is that we try to give every single child across the country the greatest education that he or she can possibly receive. It is on the Department to give that education. We will be unable to support young carers across this country if we cannot give them the opportunity to develop their education while they provide this vital care.

Today in the audiovisual room I was struck by the almost gut-wrenching meeting I had with Family Carers Ireland and the four young carers. Conor told us that he lives a two and a half hour bus journey from University of Limerick where he is studying and that he lives in constant fear about how quickly he could get back if something happened at home.

Conor added that if something was to happen to his mother or father, it would stop him from pursuing his own career in education as he will have to be the one who provides for his family.

Fourteen-year-old Lucy told us that she felt invisible in school and expressed her concerns at 14 years of age at the lack of support and services available in our schools. Benjamin informed us that he did not get the support in school despite reaching out to the school staff. He expressed his disappointment in anti-bullying policies as just being a tick-the-box exercise and expressed his concerns that many young carers go unnoticed in our system because of the stigma that surrounds it in our schools. Sarah Ann told us that young carers like her exist in the shadows.

These interactions were stark. Family Carers Ireland has support programmes right across the country. It has two young carers support workers who are funded by Family Carers Ireland and not by the Department. These young carers we speak about often have so much piling up on them. We know the issues and the Minister knows them as well. We have tens of thousands of children waiting on essential therapies and we have more than 10,000 children waiting on assessments of needs in this country and it is these very people who are sitting in the Visitors Gallery who are the ones dealing with this on a daily basis. I am calling on the Minister and her Government to support this motion.

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (Deputy Norma Foley)

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh Gníomhach, as an am agus an deis a thabhairt dom. I welcome this motion from the Labour Party because it provides an opportunity to discuss the importance of family carers, particularly young carers. I particularly want to acknowledge Deputy Wall in proposing the motion. I also want to acknowledge the work of Family Carers Ireland and all of those referenced today, including Sarah Ann, Benjamin, Conor, Lucy, Noah and, equally important, all of those who have not been named but who do the work.

The Government recognises family carers as key enablers for Government policy to support people to live with dignity and independence in homes and communities of their choosing for as long as possible by providing vital care to some of our most vulnerable citizens. We know that family carers are the backbone of care provision in Ireland at all times and I appreciate that.

We know that between census 2016 and the most recent census in 2022 the number of carers increased by 53% to 299,128, or 6% of the population, up from 4% in the previous census. Caring is not a gender-balanced profession. Around 61% of carers are women and 39% are men.

The motion speaks to the life impacts on a young person who cares for or helps to care for a family or a household member who has an illness, disability, mental health difficulties or problems with drugs or alcohol misuse. We are all incredibly appreciative of young carers and all that they do for brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers or other extended family members. There were, as has been referenced, an estimated 67,000 young people between the ages of ten and 17 providing regular care to a loved one in the home as per the The Irish Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study 2018. I accept, as the motion puts it, that the number is likely to be higher now, given the rise in the overall population.

Most of the work young carers do at home is at home and, therefore, is unseen and unheard by the wider world. I am conscious that Family Carers Ireland has an annual awards ceremony each year to recognise the contribution of young carers and to highlight the work that is done by young carers. I am very conscious that there are young carers who are not only looking after siblings with special needs but also simultaneously helping parents who have long-term illnesses.

We know that addressing the needs of carers, including young carers, falls to a number of different Government Departments and agencies across a breadth of policies and services. I would like to outline just some of the range of supports which are provided for carers, including young carers, across a number of these Departments. Before I do so, I would like to say that I have always been conscious of Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady and wife of the former US President Jimmy Carter, who was a particular champion of carers. She said, "There are only four kinds of people in the world: those who have been caregivers, those who are currently caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who need a caregiver."

Our healthcare system is very dependent on the continuing supply of family carers and their importance will increase even further as people live longer lives and benefit from advances in medical care. With The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing showing that almost three quarters of care in the community is provided by family carers, it is a significant percentage of the population, and this includes young carers. The Government is committed to enhancing the financial supports available to them.

The Department of Social Protection administers both the carer's benefit and the carer's support grant which are available to young carers in need of financial support. The annual carer's support grant is available to family carers who provide full-time care and assistance, regardless of means or social insurance contributions, and may be paid to carers from the age of 16. This grant can be used for any purpose at the discretion of the carer and is not taxed. This is not available for any other grouping. As part of budget 2025, the carer's support grant will increase by €150 to €2,000, bringing it to its highest ever rate.

These supports are important because the report by the HSE's community healthcare west in 2023 on the needs of carers showed the demanding nature of the work of a carer. It found that 93% of carers in their study were stressed to some degree and 52% of carers felt so exhausted that they could not carry out their normal day-to-day activities. Almost half of carers in the study experienced problems with sleep within the past three days. No Government support on its own can address all of these challenges but it is important to have financial support in place for carers, including young carers.

A support that is available to carers at the age of 18 and over is a carer's benefit payment. Carer's benefit is a non-means tested payment made to ensure a payment for people who may be required to leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for someone in need of full-time care and attention. As part of budget 2025, carer's benefit will be extended to the self-employed for the first time and the earnings limit will be increased from €450 to €625 after tax. As part of budget 2025 and from January, there was a 12% increase in the weekly rates of carer's benefit and carer's allowance. This is the fourth successive rise in weekly welfare rates under this Government. Rates have increased by €41 over the past four years.

The Dormant Accounts Fund has been successful in directing funding towards valuable social purposes and I am pleased that through the Dormant Accounts Fund Action Plan 2024, the Department of Social Protection introduced a measure to support family carers, including young carers, to access employment, training and education supports to improve their current and future employment outcomes. Funding of €1.2 million has been allocated for this singular purpose.

I know from my own conversations with advocacy groups that the means test for the carer's allowance is something they would like to see removed. I was part of the team which negotiated the programme for Government and I am satisfied that it sets out a timeline which commits to significantly further increasing the income disregards for a carer's allowance in each budget, with a view to gradually phasing out the means test during the lifetime of the Government. As part of budget 2025, the weekly income disregard will increase in July from €450 to €625 for a single person and from €900 to €1,250 for carers with a spouse or partner.

The carers guarantee is the promise to have a core basket of services for carers across the country, regardless of where they live. Annual funding of €2.6 million is currently provided towards delivering this. The bulk of the funding, €2.44 million, is being provided to Family Carers Ireland to deliver a mix of community and individual supports across five areas of activity, including education and training, community carer support, intensive emergency supports, a freephone care line and psychological supports. The remaining €160,000 supports the development and delivery of online supports for more than 8,000 family carers through Care Alliance Ireland by means of an online support group.

Increase funding for the carers guarantee will also support the programme for Government commitment to increase support for carers by providing new training opportunities to support them in their caring role. We know from research that caring is physically and emotionally demanding and we also know that from our own engagement with carers. Young carers can put so much into it that they pay less attention, as we are aware and as was outlined, to their own physical and mental health needs. Family carers in Ireland continue to report having poorer health, less support and feeling more worried about their future than those without the same responsibilities. In recognition of the need to address this, a pilot of a family carer needs assessment tool has been carried out in HSE community healthcare west with a view to establishing a standardised mechanism for assessing carers needs and to improve access to supports.

GP visit cards are another important support for carers, and since September 2018 individuals in receipt of either a full or half-rate carer's allowance or carer's benefit are automatically eligible for a GP visit card.

The Department of Health also administers the national carers strategy. A review carried out by Care Alliance Ireland and University College Cork in 2021 of the national carers strategy found that more than 90% of carers feel the actions in the strategy were still relevant and wanted them retained. Before deciding on any future work to update the national carers strategy, consideration has been given by the Department of Health regarding the approach and the breadth of stakeholder consultation. The body of this motion concerns young carers, and I will be cognisant of that.

We all know that caring for family members can impose pressures on young carers. As I said, they have duties and decisions to make that would normally be the preserve of an adult. It can be even harder for them when they are unable to spend as much time as they would like with friends who may not have the same caring responsibilities, or when they have to sacrifice some of their own interests and hobbies. The well-being of all in the school community, including young carers, is a priority for my colleague, the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Department of Education.

During my time as Minister for Education I introduced a landmark programme of counselling supports in all primary schools in counties Cavan, Laois, Leitrim, Longford, Mayo, Monaghan and Tipperary. I extended this pilot project last year to 61 urban DEIS primary schools in Tallaght, Clondalkin, Finglas, Ballymun and Darndale. This counselling pilot allows experienced counsellors to work in the schools for the duration of the pilot with blocks of up to six counselling sessions for a small number of children in the school. Schools have the freedom to recommend the children who need this counselling and, in many cases, it may be children who have experienced trauma or a recent bereavement, but I believe the counselling may also be an important support for some young carers.

It is important to point out that in relation to my own Department specialist disability services are aimed, in the first instance, at providing the right services and supports to enable people with special service needs live as independently as possible. That can reduce the care needs for people with disabilities and relieve the responsibilities of young family carers.

Deputy Marie Sherlock

I thank my colleague, Deputy Wall, for bringing this important motion before us today and I acknowledge the incredible work of the children and young adults across this country who day in, day out provide support to their family members. I know they do it out of love and loyalty. I know that many do not even consider themselves under the label of carer. It is a way of life. It is their life and they do it out of necessity. It is to that necessity that I want to speak today.

There are children in this country, teenagers and young adults, who are in caring roles and shouldering the burden of care because an abject failure by this Government and successive Governments in this State to provide sufficient healthcare in the community. We have a creaking system of community healthcare out there. We have fewer public health nurses than we did five years ago. There are just 1,500 public health nurses across the country. What does that mean for the young carer and their family? There are fewer nurses in the community checking in on those patients, their families and their needs. If the public health nurse is not checking in on those families, who is?

We have a horrendously long waiting list for home care support of more than 5,500 across the State. In Cork and Kerry, there are more than 1,000 people on the waiting list. In Clare and Limerick, there are 860. That means young carers are having to step in when the professional support should be there. Respite beds are the lifeline of so many families and yet we have dire shortages. The worst feature for me in all of this is that the HSE does not really have a grasp or handle on the level of demand out there. There is no centrally maintained waiting list. All of this culminates in the fact that we have no statutory right to home care support and to healthcare in the home. It has been promised for years and I know it is a promise of this Government, but we have yet to see it.

The reality is that disability and long-term illness can come to any home. I know that all the money in the world will not make up for the impact on family members when that comes to a home, but money can make life easier. We have a reality that those with money have some capacity to buy support if they need it. However, those with nothing have no backup. Time and again in the communities I represent in Dublin Central, we see the vicious cycle of disability or long-term illness and families in poverty with the inability to work or reduced capacity to earn. Time and again I see that when long-term illness visits a family, in particular lone parent families, it falls to the young person in that family to shoulder the burden of care. That is wrong. We need the State to be able to provide much greater supports. The reality is that young carers are living in some of the most disadvantaged households in our communities and that this is a greater issue in working class communities. When we combine disability, long-term illness and poverty, the impact on those children's lives is profound. The reality is that the failure of our State to provide those healthcare supports to people to be cared for in their homes means we are failing children. That has to change.

I thank the Minister for supporting our motion today, but we need real action, and we need it now. We cannot afford to wait because there are children and young adults in the Visitors Gallery and there are thousands across this country who are relying on this Government to ensure we have a proper healthcare support system to look after their family members in the home.

Deputy Ciarán Ahern

I commend my colleague, Deputy Wall, and his staff on all of their work in producing this important motion. I especially commend the young carers who are with us in the Visitors Gallery this evening, and who shared their powerful testimonies with us in the audiovisual room this afternoon. They should not have to be here, but the reality of our broken system of care is what makes this motion so necessary. Our system of care is broken.

I have been struck by the lack of supports or even acknowledgements available to young carers and the effects this has on them from a social perspective, an educational perspective and a well-being perspective. I am thinking of Ann aged 20 and Barry aged 17 who both provide care for their lone parent who has an acquired brain injury. Ann cares full time for their parent at home and Barry helps outside of school hours. The demands of their caring responsibilities are having a huge impact on their education. Ann cannot apply for third level because her carer's allowance will be cut off if she undertakes studies for more than 18 and a half hours per week. Barry is struggling to study for his leaving certificate simply because he finds it difficult to find the time in the evenings, and presumably the energy. Both Ann and Barry suffer from isolation. They miss out on social occasions and rarely get a break, and there are thousands of young carers across this country, often hidden, who are struggling with little to no help. I repeat that our system of care is broken.

I had an interaction with a woman recently and it stayed with me. As a young mother with a child with additional needs, she got involved in advocacy work because she did not want another generation of parents to have to suffer through the same difficulties she had. That was 40 years ago, but the problems persist. She has spent 40 years battling for adequate respite, services and allowances. The battle continues. All of us in this House get emails and calls every day from concerned parents or carers who cannot access therapies for their dependants.

In my constituency of Dublin South West, the need for more speech and language therapists is acute. I met recently with the management team in Ballyboden primary care centre. In 2022 they had five speech and language therapists. Today, they have one who works part time. Part of the problem is that the pay and numbers strategy has effectively introduced a recruitment freeze unless they get rid of positions elsewhere. They also had two vacant positions at the end of 2023 which were then disappeared. It points to the fact that in our care system, those who provide the care, be they healthcare workers, section 39 workers, the parents of children with additional needs or the young carers who are providing care for their loved ones, are undervalued and underappreciated.

The Minister has an opportunity today to do right by some of the most heroic but vulnerable members of our society - those young carers sitting in the Visitors Gallery today. I urge her to support this motion.

Deputy Duncan Smith

I commend my colleague, Deputy Wall, whose commitment to carers neither begins nor ends with this motion. He has done, and continues to do, wonderful work. I also commend the young carers who are here. Nowhere in this country does the State get better bang for its buck than the money it gives to carers. That is compounded even more by young carers who get nothing. With what they give, and what they save the State, it is absolutely abhorrent that this system continues. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, that we will debate carers in the Dáil. We did it a lot in the last Dáil and yet very little has changed.

This motion focuses on young carers who gave the most powerful testimonies in the audiovisual during the last Dáil and again today, and yet nothing seems to change. A study by the ESRI shows that there are long-term impacts for young carers specifically around education, with lower leaving certificate grades and less progression to higher education among those young carers involved in care giving.

There are clear ripple and knock-on effects throughout their adult life, yet the State takes no role or responsibility and remains wilfully blind to these outcomes and effects. This needs to be addressed by means of cross-departmental work. It simply cannot be allowed to linger unseen and not tackled. We need to see the establishment of a working group on young carers and, equally importantly, we need the Department with the lead responsibility, namely the Minister's Department, to be held accountable.

While motions on carers were not rare in the previous Dáil by any stretch of the imagination, progress, unfortunately, has remained slow. A real problem has developed with this Government in recent years - and it is the same Government - whereby empty platitudes have taken the place of real action.

Carers, even those who are in receipt of carer’s allowance, because that is not an end in and of itself, have to deal with the constant spectre of the Department over their shoulder waiting to fall down for a review. There is a mendacious culture in the Department to the effect that money given to carers is something that should be reviewed constantly and that needs to be taken back.

I am working on a case which concerns a caregiver who is in receipt of carer’s allowance for caring for her daughter. Her daughter is starting a State-sponsored programme to try to get into the workforce for a few hours per week that is well below the threshold. They both sought assurances that a review of the carer’s allowance would not take place because they had just been through a review in the past nine months. They made those representations carefully, but what happened? The Department instigated another review. The disgraceful treatment of carers by the State and the Department continues. This is no more evident than in the ignorance about young carers. This motion goes some way to try to change that. We need more than just platitudes and agreement. We need action. What is happening to our carers is a disgrace.

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. Bogfaidh muid ar aghaidh anois go dtí sliotán Shinn Féin leis an Teachta Louise O’Reilly.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

I welcome the visitors in the Public Gallery. I also welcome this motion and thank the Deputies who brought it forward.

I thank those carers and their representative organisations who are campaigning for the abolition of the means test for the carer’s payment. They have had a serious impact and have forced the Government into making a commitment. However, we know how much a commitment from this Government is actually worth. For that reason, we will keep the pressure on until this cruel means test is abolished.

We could talk all day about the valuable work done by carers. I remind Deputies that just because they do that work with love, does not mean they should be taken advantage of. Some of that work is being done by children who are not yet of working age. It deserves to be recognised. The impact this work has on a child and his or her development cannot be understated. As well as the work they do - caring for a family member is work, and we should not be shy about saying it - there is a great deal that carers, and young carers in particular, do not do. They miss out on so many of the positive aspects of being a young person. They miss out on education, socialising and having the time to simply be themselves. While they do it willingly, it is work and deserves to be recognised as such.

The motion calls for the putting in place of a range of supports and measures specifically aimed at young carers. That is welcome. I hope the Minister will take the suggestions on board. The issue of returning to education in particular is one which I believe is urgent and pressing. These young people are saving the State a fortune by taking on caring responsibilities, but the impact on their education has to be acknowledged.

Now that the issue of young carers is on the agenda, I take this opportunity to urge the Government to listen to the voices of young carers directly about the impact that combining the work of caring with their ordinary lives is having on them and what they need to be put in place to support them. I have spoken to parents who are absolutely wracked with guilt because they rely on the care given by young family members. They worry that they are not having the childhood they deserve and that they are missing out on activities and fun with their friends. Sometimes, they are forced to miss out on their education. They will say that the lack of support from the State means that the young carer has to grow up too fast and that they effectively will not have a childhood. Young carers make up the shortfall for the State. They deserve to be recognised.

Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan

I strongly welcome this motion. Earlier today in the audiovisual room, a group of young family carers gave a powerful description of the work they do and the impact the lack of supports - and the utter lack of State support - is having. Carers are the backbone of our society. They are the quiet, everyday heroes who give everything to care for loved ones. The respect and high regard that carers are held in by the public was crystal clear to see in the run-up to the general election. While every party and group pledged to support carers and scrap the means test, sadly, as is the way with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that commitment appears to be just another broken election promise. We have seen no details, timelines or plans from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, but, rather, just empty words. This leaves carers to struggle on in uncertainty. Scrapping the carer’s means test and ending the unfair injustice and cruel financial punishment should have been a clear-cut action from day one by this Government.

Carers make personal sacrifices every day, be it in terms of their income or their own well-being, in order to care for loved ones. A recent report found that 72% of carers never receive respite. Therefore, some 72% of carers do not receive significant formal support, while nearly 70% of carers are struggling to make ends meet. This is an absolute disgrace and a shame on Government parties for standing idly by. These carers deserve respect and dignity. The work they do saves the State €20 billion each year, but 76% of them are left battling severe loneliness and abandoned by the State.

As someone who has worked with adults with disabilities for 18 years as a carer, I have always been proud of the recognition and respect Sinn Féin has showed to the work of carers in our community. The Sinn Féin charter for carers clearly sets out the value and respect we have for carers and their significant role in society. We would not rest on our laurels. We will not be stalling and delaying reports like the interdepartmental report which has been delayed since March 2024. It is now time to act and publish the report,. The inaction on the part of the Minister and her colleagues in government is not only a failure, it is also just sloppy work. It is straight up cruel on the thousands of carers across this State. It is important we say to all the young carers in the Public Gallery and to the carers tuning in to the television in their homes that we see them. We see the invaluable work they do and we will not be silenced on this. We will fight to ensure that they get the respect and the supports they are so worthy of.

Deputy Louis O'Hara

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion. The work of young carers in particular has not been recognised. That needs to change. They need to be supported in order that they can pursue their education and live their lives as young people.

I am going to share the experiences of some carers in my constituency with whom I have spoken in recent days. While this is just a small sample, all of those I have spoken to feel forgotten and totally unsupported. Frances told me about her mother who cares for her father. He has Parkinson’s disease and needs full-time care. She is only entitled to half the carer’s allowance, which is demoralising for the amount of work she does daily. If she was getting the full amount, it would greatly ease the burden when it comes to rising costs and would enable her to get help with other things, such as cleaning, which she cannot do because all of her time is spent caring for her husband. Lorraine cares for her two children with autism and cannot get services for them. She is spending a huge amount of money on private services. She is on carer’s benefit. When that runs out, she does not know what she will do because she has bills to pay. Her hands are tied. She cannot work and, therefore, is considering emigrating. Pauline cares for her 88-year-old mother who needs care around the clock. She was contacted by the Department yesterday. It wants to know what is wrong with her mother and why she needs care. She says the Department made her feel like a criminal. Anne cares for her elderly parents who are both fully dependent. She and her sister put in more than 100 hours work per week caring for them. They both work full time to facilitate paying for private help in order that they can go home to their families and sleep in their own beds some nights. Anne is overwhelmed, exhausted and has not had a break in years.

If she could get some kind of payment, she believes she might be able to save something. The voice of carers, young and old, must be heard and the Government must take action in response. It must increase respite, payments and investment to make sure that people are allowed to stay in their own homes, if that is their wish. The Government must scrap the means test for the carer's allowance. The Government made this promise during the election campaign and it is now time to deliver on it. Carers cannot wait any longer. We have heard today from those who are directly affected by this. I call on the Minister of State to do this as a matter of urgency.

Deputy Ann Graves

I welcome this motion. The carer's allowance is a hugely important issue that needs to be addressed. The means test must be scrapped. Members of this Government should hang their heads in shame. In the run up to the recent general election, the Government promised to scrap the means test. Four months after the election, absolutely nothing has been done. There is no plan, detail or timeline. The Government is too busy making grubby deals to actually address the real needs of struggling families. We in Sinn Féin were abundantly clear during the general election that we were committed to scrapping the means test and we would have done so by now. Every day I see the valuable and essential work being done by carers and I also see how they are struggling. This is a 24-7 job, with little support or respite. In my own family, my daughter was a young carer for my mother, who she looked after right until the end of her life. This meant that my mother could stay in the family home, living with dignity, close to family and loved ones and never wanting for anything. This situation is replicated in thousands of homes across the State but it is simply not recognised or respected by this Government or previous ones. The Government needs to listen to young carers, in particular. They regularly look after siblings or parents, while trying to continue their education when they can, with little or no support, in many cases. The impact on their health and well-being is well documented. They are dealing with caring responsibilities while others of the same age are developing and living their lives. The work they are doing needs to be recognised. It is also worth noting that carers save the State €20 billion. Unfortunately, the mean and miserly politics of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, supported by so-called Independents, would rather ignore this fact. I ask the Minister of State to do the right thing by scrapping the means test, increasing the carer's allowance and supporting all care givers.

Deputy Máire Devine

My constituency of Dublin South Central has one of the highest percentages of residents with a disability. We know that households with a disabled member are more likely to be in poverty. Several communities here are chronically disadvantaged and children can be seen minding parents, especially in cases of mental health issues and addiction, which sadly often go hand in hand. In my previous role as a community nurse, I remember visiting a patient in Crumlin. I was introduced to his 11-year-old son, Declan. I witnessed this boy's caring for his siblings and his single father, due to his father's debilitating neurological disorder. He gets up at 6 a.m. and gets himself and two siblings dressed, fed and out the door to school. He ensures his father has taken his morning medication, eats breakfast and can reach his mobile phone, in case of emergency. After school, there is not time for play. There is dinner to get, usually a precooked meal that he has bought at the shops himself. He helps the younger ones with school homework and projects and then bed. If his father needs help to make an appointment with a specialist or social housing assistance, Declan must do this before the offices close for the day. Only after everyone else has been helped can he start homework but it is often at 9 p.m. and by then he is exhausted. He would love to play Minecraft again but recreation does not really fit in to his life any more. Declan does not think of himself as a carer. He is terrified of telling anyone in authority of his situation because he does not want his family to be broken up. That is his big fear. For all the uncertainty and his father's diminishing capacity, it is the only family he knows and it is home. Declan, and thousands like him, desperately need better supports that actually reach them and a system that proactively identifies and reassures them, allowing them to be children during childhood. I wholeheartedly welcome and support this motion. However, I do not have faith in the Government delivering, given the ongoing dysfunction in so many areas that affect children, for example, in respect of Tusla, CAMHS, CDNTs and special education. These are all woefully underfunded, understaffed, underresourced and on their knees. Given the broken election promises for carer's allowance, I challenge the Minister of State and the Government to address this motion with genuine, meaningful action. I give a shout out to all those in the Public Gallery and for those who cannot be here. Children are our future; please allow then to be children.

Deputy Conor D. McGuinness

I thank the Labour Party for moving this motion to ensure this important issue is aired in the Dáil Chamber. I too welcome the delegation who are here to witness proceedings. This debate provides an opportunity to discuss the challenges, frustrations and failings that carers grapple with daily. It allows us to acknowledge the immense contribution they make to the loved ones they care for and to society as a whole. The motion proposes measures that will improve their situations and their outcomes. Young carers and young adult carers provide care, assistance and support to other family members, be that a parent, a sibling, a grandparent or sometimes their own children, who can have myriad issues. It could be to do with illness or disability, difficulties with mental health or drug or alcohol misuse. They do so on an unpaid basis. As other Deputies have pointed out, this saves the State a fortune in the process. There are tens of thousands of these carers in communities across the State. While they provide the care out of love and loyalty, we must also acknowledge the very real context. They provide care because State services have failed them and the person they care for. They are filling the gaps that have been left by the State, that should not exist in 2025. We know that young carers face additional challenges with disproportional impacts in educational outcomes, mental health and life opportunities. In many cases, they report poorer emotional health and well-being outcomes, as well as lower life satisfaction than their peers. Moreover, they are at a greater risk of poverty. In my constituency, I know young carers who have gone hungry or have left education or have become unwell due to the pressures placed on them and their families by the failure of successive Governments to resource services. Against this backdrop, it is nothing short of shameful that neither the Department of Education nor the Department of children, disability and equality have a dedicated programme that recognises the specific needs of young carers and young adult carers. The programme for Government does not even acknowledge their existence, let alone offer proposals or commitments to improve their situations. Carers and their loved ones are not being supported and are struggling to cope. The voice of carers must be heard and the Government must take action in response. This would include recognising the specific situation faced by young carers with tailored supports and allowances.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion and the carers who are doing the work, day in and day out. For nearly 20 years I worked as a family support worker. In the course of that time, I came across many young people who were carers for one or both of their parents. We tried to give them as much support as we could but it was never enough because while we could finish our day, they could never clock off. From early in the morning, to late at night and sometimes throughout the night, they were the only carers. Their education and childhood suffered because this State was using them to fill the gaps in the public services. I have seen at first hand the effects on their education, from doing really well in school to struggling to get to school, or being constantly late and unable to study because the work in the home had to be done. They lost time with their friends and lost opportunities to build a social life, take on a hobby or be part of a social club or a team. A frightening statistic of the report shows that many felt stressed. I was gobsmacked by the statistic that says that 80% of young carers are at risk of clinical depression because of the pressure they are under. I support the asks of the Labour Party but there are three things the Government could do really quickly. The first would be to provide extra funding to family support initiatives. This would allow more family support work in the home, which would take the pressure off young carers and young adult carers. Respite support should be provided for carers. This would give young people who are caring day in and day out, sometimes 365 days per year, a bit of time for themselves.

I raised the issue of the Blanchardstown Centre for Independent Living, BCIL, which received pitiful increases in supports, despite the centre massively increasing the supports that it provides. Puzzlingly, I got a reply from the HSE this week - because I raised it two weeks ago - asking for a business plan for BCIL but the HSE already has this because it was provided months ago.

Those young people deserve to get the help and support they need.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this motion regarding young carers. Sixty-seven thousand children - let us call them what they are - provide regular care for adults. They do so in an unpaid capacity. It is a burden young people should not have to face that impacts their development and, often, their mental health. One in four of them goes to school hungry and without food because there is simply not enough food in the house.

While caring for a family member will of course impact young people more as regards their development, this role impacts on carers of all ages. A carer provides significant care to somebody in need of care in the home due to illness, disability or frailty. I have been dealing with the case of a woman who is getting old but is still the carer for her grandson, and has been since he was three years old. He is now 19. She became her grandson's guardian and carer due to unforeseen issues and has provided all the support he needed. The young man has an autism diagnosis, dyspraxia, profound learning difficulties and various mental health challenges. He is and has been a handful for her. To this day, he requires support with washing and general personal hygiene and becomes disorientated easily. His grandmother stepped in. If she had not, the burden would have fallen on the State, as we well know. In January of this year, her carer's allowance was cut as it was determined that the young person being cared for did not require full-time care and attention. She has appealed this. I am supporting that appeal but we were told we can now anticipate waiting 23.5 weeks for a decision on the appeal, and we cannot be sure that this desperately needed payment will be reinstated.

I fully support the motion but I must ask the Minister why we make things so difficult for these people who really are the unsung heroes of our country.

Deputy Matt Carthy

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward the motion on this important issue. The truth is that this State fails carers. We do not give them the support they need and deserve. We do not truly recognise that carers are not only providing an essential service to their own loved ones; they are also providing society with an essential service. The truth is that far too many carers are struggling to survive. When you speak to those people who are caring for their family members, it is hard to comprehend how they are doing it. On top of the myriad of duties outlined by Deputies that fall to carers, we have added an extra duty, which is the duty to campaign. They have to campaign for recognition. They have to lobby politicians to bring their pleas to this House urging Government to do the right thing.

In many ways, last year was a sea-change. I hope it will mark a turning point in how this House and society deal with and recognise carers. For the first time ever, there was a political unanimity that we needed to do better. When Deputy Mary Lou McDonald announced at the Sinn Féin Ard-Fheis that Sinn Féin was committed to abolishing the carer's means test, many people thought that it was pie in the sky stuff. However, very quickly, virtually all other parties followed suit and committed to doing so.

The Minister said that the Government will abolish the means test. Do not make people wait any longer than they already have. Please just do it.

Deputy Liam Quaide

I also welcome the delegation that is here. I fully support this Labour Party motion. Family carers are a large group of people who have been tragically neglected by the State. They provide vital unpaid care, often under severe financial pressure and with huge personal sacrifice. In the case of young carers, this sacrifice can include losing out on parts of childhood and carrying unsustainable emotional burdens. Caring for a family member can be all-consuming. This often happens in a context where the person has been denied a range of supports that are essential to their well-being, their opportunities and their longer term outcomes.

I know from my previous work as a psychologist that the role of a young carer can give a person strengths and qualities, including resilience, emotional attunement and resourcefulness, which serve them well throughout their lives. They sometimes go on to work in the caring professions, and are seen by friends as problem solvers with endless practical wisdom and emotional reserves. However, being a young carer can also have complex impacts on identity and mental health, and can place the young person in a role that is developmentally at odds with their actual age. I pay tribute to one of the young carers who spoke with raw honesty in the audiovisual room session today about the ambivalent feelings her caregiving has given rise to. I also commend Deputy Mark Wall on organising that event and the other speakers who shared powerful testimony at that session.

An NUIG study from 2018 showed that 13.3% of young people between the ages of ten and 17 report being in a caring role. Extrapolation to the national population suggests that at least 67,000 young people in that age group provide regular unpaid care to a family member. Across a range of indicators of emotional health and well-being, young carers reported poorer outcomes than their non-carer peers. Young carers are at greater risk than their peers of being bullied at school. One in four young carers said that they went to school or bed hungry because there was not enough food at home. A 2023 study on young carers commissioned by Family Carers Ireland showed that 86% of participants felt stressed, 80% were at risk of clinical depression, 79% felt very lonely and 32% struggled to balance caring with school.

Caring for somebody can be isolating, worrying and stressful. It can also negatively affect the person's experiences and outcomes in education and can have a lasting impact on life opportunities. We know that young carers are four times more likely to drop out of higher level education. Young carers, therefore, need a range of social, educational and psychological supports to address the burden of care they carry. Schools, colleges and universities need to work with young carers and young adult carer groups to ensure that they have appropriate policies and networks to meet the needs of those carers who are pupils or students. Young carers need access to respite and emotional support, advice from mentors and, where necessary, counselling services. They need time to be with friends, to participate in sport and other activities or interests and, in short, to live their life and develop their identity outside a caring role, which can be all-consuming.

Looking more broadly at the picture for family carers, it is estimated that approximately 500,000 people in Ireland, or one in eight of the population, are family carers. According to The State of Caring 2024 report, which was also commissioned by Family Carers Ireland, 74% of carers felt that those they care for are not receiving sufficient formal support and family carers are left to fill the void left by the State. Stepping into the role of a family carer can often plunge a family into financial distress. According to The State of Caring report, 39% of carers have a total income of less than €30,000 and 29% have had to cut back on essentials such as food and heat as a result.

In addition to the ongoing work on phasing out the means test for carer's allowance, does the Minister plan to increase the rate of carer's allowance to an appropriate level, one that reflects the social importance of the work? As it stands, the means test leaves many carers struggling financially and below the established minimum essential standard of living. It excludes thousands of carers and leaves others with reduced or partial payments. It currently takes no account of the cost to families of their mortgage repayments, the cost associated with other children in a family, or medical costs for the person being cared for. In short, it does not reflect the reality of life faced by family carers.

We need to consider more than just the phasing out of the means test if we are to really help these families. Will the Minister expand the ongoing work on reviewing the eligibility criteria with a view to allowing more people to qualify? Will she also consider making carer's allowance a qualifying payment for the fuel allowance? What specific measures for young carers will she introduce so that their specific educational, emotional and social needs are addressed?

Deputy Jen Cummins

Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghabháil leis an Labour Party as an rún seo. Fáilte to all the young carers, those from Family Carers Ireland who are in the Visitors Gallery and those watching. I support this crucial motion because for too long, young carers in this country have been invisible as they work in their homes providing vital assistance to loved ones in their families and communities. The sacrifices they make go unrecognised, their struggles are unheard and their futures are put at risk all because we have failed to give them the support they desperately need. At times, they are filling a gap that the State has failed to resource.

Young carers in Ireland, some of whom are as young as ten years old, take on responsibilities well beyond their years. They look after their parents, siblings and other family members who are ill, have disabilities or mental health difficulties, or are struggling with addiction. They are the hidden backbone of thousands of households, stepping up when no one else does, yet what do they get in return?

As several Members have said, there are 67,000 young carers in Ireland according to 2008 figures, but that has probably increased. How many of those households are being failed by the State because it has fallen on young children to take on the burden of care? Those of us who were in attendance in the audiovisual room today heard four absolutely amazing young people speak about their experiences of being young carers. They are brilliant but it was heartbreaking to hear of their isolation, loneliness and exhaustion and the lack of support. However, I saw the light when they talked about being involved in Family Carers Ireland. They really felt supported, so well done to the adults who support them. I come from an education background and years ago I saw young carers being supported. In one of the schools I worked in as part of the school completion programme, there was a group for young carers which was absolutely lovely. Those young people were cared for and that gave them the ability to care for others. If no one is looking after you, how can you care for others?

I was struck by what was said today about the schools not being clear and not knowing or there being a lack of understanding. The young people sit exams and the teachers and SNAs know they are carers but it does not matter what is going on at home if they have to have an assignment in, it still had to be in on time. Yet, they have many other pressures that other students perhaps do not have. I was struck by that. It is down to the Department of Education to give schools clear, direct and appropriate guidance on how to support children and young people who are carers and attending our schools.

I was struck as well that there is no dedicated Government programme to support young carers and no recognition by the Department of Social Protection. The means test for carer's allowance which has been brought up several times today, and other supports actively punish young adult carers who want to pursue an education or employment. I was struck by the young person who is in college. How fair is it that he has that worry all the time in the back of his mind? He described the worry he has about how long it would take to get home if something went wrong at home. It is a constant worry so it is hard to think of anything else. Anyone here who has had a sick family member - I have had a few in recent years - will know it takes up every part of your being. You cannot think about anything else. For young people who are trying to get through school or college, that is a huge problem. We need to recognise our young carers. They are a priority but have not been recognised for a long time. This motion is not only about a policy. It is about fairness, dignity and giving these young people the future they deserve. I hope the Government listens and takes the urgent action these young people deserve.

Deputy Sinéad Gibney

I thank the Labour Party, including Deputy Wall, for bringing this motion to the floor of the House today to give us a chance to recognise the young carers in our society who contribute so much. I also welcome those who are in the Gallery today.

I am particularly interested in the quality public services which are essentially lacking in our society. That requires very much from family and informal carers. I will also speak about means testing but, first, I acknowledge the experience of young carers. I will speak briefly about my own experience. I became a single mum at the age of 24 which is, by today's discussion, on the border of young. I also acknowledge that I was in the privileged position of already having a university degree. I had even started my career so I was able to put my life on hold for 18 months and take care of my daughter before I returned to my career and got on with my life as a new mum.

Many young carers and young adult carers have to put their lives completely on hold. Their lives are so disrupted that they cannot continue with their education, social lives or friends and simply being children is no longer available to them because of the care responsibilities they take on. That is purely the result of a failure by the State to provide the quality public services that should underpin a modern progressive society that is the bedrock of a social democracy. We see time and again the failure of disability services, healthcare services and respite services in all quarters of society which is putting immense pressure on various groups in society. Single parents are one of them, as I mentioned. It will be single parents day tomorrow for the record so I give a particular shout-out to all the single mums and others parenting alone.

When we think about this motion and what flows from it, one of the big issues that is prevalent, and many people raised it with me during the election campaign, is the means testing of carer's allowance. What we are doing is punishing people for providing a service our society needs badly and which serves communities and families everywhere. People are at their wits' end. Although we saw a lot of talk about this during the election campaign, I have concerns about the speed at which it is being addressed. I urge the Minister and the Government to progress this as quickly as possible so that people can get out from underneath poverty and the pressure they are under to advocate for themselves while providing this service.

That all says to me that we have a much bigger conversation to have about care. It is also a gendered issue. Overall, care is either unpaid or underpaid and unfortunately these issues will all be symptoms until we deal with it. It even flows from our Constitution in which, although we name-check care, it is done in a terribly gendered and archaic way. We have much to do in simply acknowledging what is contributed by family and informal carers to our economy and society and all the value that provides, and in talking about it in the context of artificial intelligence, AI, because one of the few areas of labour that will not be displaced by AI is care. We cannot automate care or the caring of those around us. That applies to the teaching and nursing professions as well. If we were forward thinking, if we could be progressive in identifying, nurturing and valuing care, we would see a lot of gain in society.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

I thank Deputy Wall and the Labour Party for bringing forward this important motion. I also commend Family Carers Ireland and all the young carers who have brought this issue to our attention. We fully support the motion. I know the Government is not opposing it but I hope it will do more than just not oppose it and that it will take seriously this motion, which I assume was drawn up in consultation with Family Carers Ireland and the young carers themselves. I apologise for not being at the briefing today. I was out the door with meetings and so forth.

I am not an expert in this area. I have come across many of the issues to do with carers but I was staggered as I was reading about this. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has done a lengthy paper on the whole issue which details many of the facts and figures and the issues confronting young carers. I am staggered by the bare bones of the issue, that we have 67,000 young carers between the ages of ten and 17. That is absolutely astounding. They are looking after parents and siblings with disabilities and chronic illnesses when they are children. It is a time when they need to develop, have a life, be educated and have a social life. It should be the beginning of a life flourishing but because of love, care and concern for their loved ones, they find themselves caring, washing people, cleaning up, feeding people and otherwise looking after them. That then impacts them disproportionately. Those young people are six times more likely to suffer the symptoms of depression, significantly affecting their results in the leaving certificate, according to the ESRI. It makes it more likely that they will suffer from things like poverty, financial distress, unhappiness and so on because they are engaged in an act of love and care for their loved ones and doing all of society a favour. I have learned from reading into the subject and from reading the motion about the huge service these young people are doing our society and tens of thousands of people who need help and care.

I seriously hope the Government is listening and will do absolutely everything.

It should of course immediately abolish the means test for the allowance and do a lot more about the income poverty carers suffer in general, but it has an even greater obligation to young people and children given the role they are playing in providing this care. The economics of it are obvious, although we should not even have to put it in these terms. Carers save the State about €20 billion a year, which is nearly the entire health budget. If these young people and other carers were not providing the care they do, we would have to double the health budget, pretty much. That is the service they are doing our society so it is incumbent on the Government to listen to what these young carers are saying. They have our support for all their efforts and well done to them for bringing this to our attention.

Deputy Brian Stanley

I welcome this motion from the Labour Party. The proposals in it are very sensible and should be implemented. I also acknowledge the work of Family Carers Ireland and the young carers, some of whom are here, as well as the Laois-Offaly family carers association and the work it does.

The means test needs to be abolished. Carers are on call 24-7. It is not like any other job. They live on small incomes and it is important that is recognised. It places a huge burden on them. It basically takes over their whole life. It determines what they can do and whether they can socialise, have friends or do any other part-time work. It is a huge call on people and we need to accept that. I, like others who have spoken, was surprised by the figures on young carers aged under 18. While I am aware of some carers, the breadth of the issue is very significant and the number of them under 18 is probably well over 70,000 now. They are a very separate group. They are providing great support in an unpaid capacity. They are trying to maintain their education, to keep going, maybe hold down a part-time job and do all sorts of things while doing this. The number will increase because our population is getting older. That is something we know. We need to try to keep people who have disabilities and illnesses in their own homes. This group is helping us to do that and we must acknowledge that.

The effects put a huge strain on the mental health of carers young and old, but for a young person in their formative years it must be a huge burden. It can be difficult enough for people my age who have been through the trials and tribulations of life, but for young people in adolescence it must be very difficult and really affect them. Their education is affected, as I said, and the Department of Education needs to recognise this. It is important to try to keep young people in the school system. That means providing extra supports, especially for young carers. These young people could be dealing with addiction situations in the household, a mental health issue, a physical health issue or all three. This is really serious. We need to provide those supports. The rules that cover the carer’s allowance and other income supports often act as a huge barrier to continuing in education and cause problems in the workforce as well when it comes to training and promotion.

Young carers are not recognised in the programme for Government and if it is to be reviewed at any time they should be included in it. More importantly, the Government should act on this motion now. We need commitments to support this group. The Government must commit, as the motion proposes, to put in place a cross-departmental group on young carers and designate a Department that will have lead responsibility and commit it to developing the dedicated programme of supports called for here. Identifying carers is also important. Sometimes they are hidden. Some people keep these things very private, but it may affect them in their schooling and their social life. The line Minister in this Department is a former Minister for Education and a former school principal so she will know what we are talking about here and recognise the responsibility to put proper targeted programmes in place to support young people and to keep them in education.

The Government must recognise fully the unpaid work of these carers, including the amount of work they are doing and the saving to the State, and it must guarantee some respite days and a young carer’s grant alongside bursaries for education, counselling and psychological support. I am asking the Government to bring forward its plan. What is in this motion is very reasonable. The Government says it is not opposing it and I welcome that, but this often happens. I have been watching this for 14 years. Sometimes the Government comes in here and does not oppose a motion, but will it act on it? That is the question going out of here today. The Government must take action on this. Young carers need it and I appeal to the Government to follow through.

Deputy Paul Murphy

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward the motion and thank Family Carers Ireland and the young carers who have campaigned on it.

Like Deputy Stanley, I welcome that the Government is not opposing the motion but I warn Family Carers Ireland and young carers watching this that there is a big gap between not opposing a motion and actually implementing what is in a motion that is passed. If the last Government had implemented just 50% of what was passed in the previous Dáil we would be in a much better place as a country than we are, so the pressure must be kept up. What is outlined in the motion is the bare minimum the State should be doing to support young carers. It is nothing short of outrageous that the rules covering carer’s allowance and other income supports are still so restrictive they prevent young adult carers from going to college or taking up training or job opportunities. These are people who are, as has been mentioned, effectively doing free labour for the State out of love for a family member in most cases and then being punished for that by being prevented from being able to continue their lives alongside providing care. The entire system of means testing for carer’s payments needs to go. All carers, including young carers, should be entitled as a right to the equivalent of a living wage. That would recognise in a real, material, impactful way the incredibly important work they do and the vast amount of money saved by the State as a consequence of that work. It is striking and shameful one in four young carers has gone to bed or school hungry. That is a direct result of the social protection system refusing, effectively, to recognise the existence of well over 67,000 young carers aged between ten and 17 years.

Underlying the horrendous, forgotten way young carers are treated is the need for a transformation in the mindset and approach towards care in our society. This is again and again reflected in debates we have about how carers are treated, but also how services are provided for disabled people, how supports are provided for older people and how provision is made for children with additional needs. Again and again the default position of the State is to say this is on the family in one way or another. The State says it is on the family and on young carers - on children – to provide all the care people need. That should not be the default position. The onus should be on the State. That was effectively the crux of the Yes-No referendum campaign last year and it is at the heart of why the State is failing carers and children with additional needs so badly. There is an idea the role of the State should only be to provide funding and respite, but obviously that is the bare minimum. It must be much more than that. The idea is that fundamentally we leave care in the hands of carers, that is, of private individuals in the family home. We might compel the Government to give something in the form of money and respite, but it needs to be much more than that. The State should not be able to just offload its responsibility onto somebody, or anybody, else rather than providing services that should be provided as a right.

From the very foundation of the State, effectively, in terms of the role of the church and so on, the State never provided the kind of basic public services that were provided in other European states. Instead, on the one hand it outsourced to the church in various forms and on the other hand it passed responsibility onto the family. That gets to the heart of why we debate these issues repeatedly and why carers and young carers in particular are failed so badly.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

I thank the Labour Party for bringing this very important issue onto the agenda for discussion. I note the Government side is not opposing it and thank it for that.

There have been quite a number of studies carried out on this area in Ireland, but the research has not really been acted on. Family Carers Ireland has provided a wealth of information to Members here today and have provided a lot of supports for young carers. One of the studies done in University of Galway found that there was limited data on young carers in Ireland and that most of the focus is on adult family carers. That is why this debate today is hugely important. There is no national legislation policy or mainstream supports for young carers in Ireland. In this, among many other things, we are in breach of various UN conventions.

I note all the comments and contributions made by other speakers regarding the carer's allowance, respite care and the impact on the outcomes for the young children who are involved in caring for family members, so I will not go into that. One of the studies from the University of Galway showed a number of recommendations which related to practical supports for young people in the home. It referred to emotional supports, just time to be with friends rather than formal respite, but also and more important, and we have a very limited contribution period here, some way for carers to be able to contact service providers to reach out. I am sure, including the 67,000 mentioned, there are many others who have not been contacted and reached out to. Therefore I would like to support that.

Deputy Michael Collins

Independent Ireland will also be supporting this motion on young carers. I thank the Labour Party for putting forward this very important motion. It is astonishing to think we have 67,000 young carers in this country. We have given them nothing but lip service over recent years, which is an injustice to those young people. Many of them are in the Gallery and were in the audiovisual room earlier. We need to show them the respect they deserve because looking after someone - actually for nothing - is a very unfair situation for a young person to find themselves in. Many - 67,000 of them - have found themselves in that situation. We as a State need to step up to the mark, show them the respect they deserve and put measures in place.

I heard someone say earlier that the system of care in this country is broken. It certainly is and we find that right across the line. When we means test the carer's allowance, that tells us how out of touch a Government is. It continues to punish people who save the State millions of euro in this country. As I said, we have 67,000 young people who are carers. How many adults are caring for loved ones at home and are saving the State millions but are literally being ignored by the State? Instead, the first thing the Government needed to do, especially in a country where we are led to believe there is money, was to abolish the means test. That would have given people a chance to be at least recognised in some small way. It is not a lot of money. We are not talking about €1,000 here. It is maybe €250 or €300. It is small money but it is recognition for what they do. Those loved ones would be in a hospital or a nursing home and requiring this type of care only for these carers. The Minister needs to understand that changes need to be made immediately.

I have spoken already this week about section 39 workers. I welcomed the pay increase of 9.25% in the Workplace Relations Commission agreement last week but then we find out afterwards that people who are caring for loved ones, families or for residents in nursing homes will not get that increase. That is very unfair. I have spoken to Tadhg Daly and to a lot of different people this week who are badly hurt by this decision. These are people who show the hand of love every day of the week to people in nursing homes. I saw it myself in Bishopscourt Residential Care centre last week because I was invited to meet the residents, the staff and the owners there. It does not matter, however, if it is Bishopscourt, Baltimore, Clonakilty or Drimoleague; all these people are providing a fantastic service. The bottom line is that community hospital staff, who do an excellent job which is very much the same as that of nursing home staff, are at least being respected and adequately paid but the person who does the same work in a nursing home is not being paid a fair income and given pay parity. It is a cause of deep hurt, and rightly so. I saw last week the care these people give. Some of the staff were able to tell me exactly who a person was. There are a lot of residents in Bishopscourt and the staff were telling me who they were and where they were from. This issue has to be looked into. It is very important.

Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice

I welcome the debate and support the motion. When we hear the Department of Finance talking about it costing a certain amount if we were to get rid of the means test, if these carers decided to look at putting their loved ones into a nursing home, it would cost the State €1,100 every week. Those are the facts of it. They are actually saving the State about €800 to €900 every week. I have been in the House for ten or 11 debates on carers and everyone agrees but the problem is that nothing is changing.

Where a youngster wants to go to college, they could be near a college, help their loved one in the morning, come home in the middle of the day and then leave them, but just because they are going to college and because of this means test and the way it is done, they are told they do not fit the criteria because they have to be there caring for so many hours. Even though there is more than 140 or however many hours in a week, the belief is that because they are gone for the few hours, they are not entitled to this allowance. That is not the way to look after people. Second, we see day in, day out people giving up their jobs, but someone belonging to them could have a fairly good job, so under this means test they are ruled out straight away.

I cannot for the life of me understand how the Department of Finance throws it out every time a debate of this kind is going on that it will cost us over a billion. I read in the newspaper last week or the week before that we as a country are prepared to throw €700 million to Europe out of our kitty for arms or for basically boosting Europe but we are not prepared to look after the people who are helping others in this country. As a Dáil and as a people, we should be looking at ourselves and deciding which we should put first. Should we put first, reward, help and recognise those who sacrifice their own lives by helping others and, in that way, help the State? We are not giving them the opportunity or the recognition they deserve. Everyone who stands up in this House will talk about carers and all the great work they do, but at the end of the day, it is about pounds, shillings and pence. That is what keeps you going. There is no point walking into a shop and saying "I am a great person because I look after my parents". That does not get you food or help you pay rent.

We should decide once and for all. I would say it is the 11th or the 12th debate in this House about carers I have been involved in. Everyone goes out the door and we move on. There will be another one if a few month's time and everyone will stand up. It is time now the Government decided it is going to do something or it is not. It is recognised under the programme for Government that something will be done, but how long is a piece of string? The programme for Government is five years. Is it going to be in June or July or will it be in June or July in four and a half year's time? These are the things that need answering. Enough debating has been done about it. Everyone knows the problem. It is about the Department of Finance deciding to put the funding that is required in the budget.

I would vote for it an awful lot sooner than I would decide to throw €700 million to Europe for arms or something. We need to make sure we look after our own people. There are many things in this country we need to address - homelessness, carers, a lot of stuff - and some people do not even have a house. You would swear we were printing money for other things.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

Gabhaim buíochas le Páirtí an Lucht Oibre as ucht an rúin seo. Is rún maith é agus is mian liom tacaíocht a thabhairt dó.

I want to raise a couple of serious issues that are affecting both carers and people with disabilities. The children's disability service grant was announced with great fanfare by the then Minister of State, Anne Rabbitte, in October 2023. This grant was to urgently provide services and therapies for children and was to be allocated within weeks. We were told that 52 organisations around the country would benefit from this fund. The Tánaiste confirmed today that applications worth €8 million were signed off by the HSE, but the money went nowhere. That is an absolute scandal. It is absolutely incredible that any government could be so harsh and hurtful in terms of badly needed funds.

In recent weeks, I have been made aware of a huge issue facing children with disabilities who are being treated at primary care centres around the country. It would appear it is now the norm for supports for children being referred from primary care to their local CDNT to drop off a cliff as soon as that referral occurs. It does not happen when they actually get the service from the CDNT but when the referral starts. This leaves children in limbo without the services they need, and many of them unfortunately regress as a result.

Another scandal we in Aontú uncovered was the issue of disability allowance. Data we received showed that 68% of people who appealed Department of Social Protection decisions to refuse the disability allowance were successful in their appeals. This means that of the 58,000 appeals against Department decisions on disability allowance in the past ten years, 40,000 were subsequently granted. The State told 40,000 people they were not entitled to the disability allowance and then turned around and said they actually were entitled to it. What does that mean for the large number of people who appealed, were refused and then left it at that? I refer to those who did not go back and appeal it in the end. I believe there should be a full audit of all these cases to see if people were entitled to that disability allowance. If they were, they need to be paid back to the date they applied in the first place.

Another issue affecting people - I got this information in the past 24 hours - is the level of vacancies in CDNTs across the country. It is incredible that at present, there are 817 vacancies in CDNTs across the country. In CHO 1 - Donegal, Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Sligo - there has been a fall of 22% in therapy hours in the space of a year. The HSE is one of the biggest employers of CDNT staff. Some 44% of those positions are currently vacant and 43% of all psychologist posts are also currently vacant. That is an incredible figure. The equivalent figures in CHO 1 and CHO 5 are 62% and 59%. If the Government is not going to employ psychologists, psychiatrists and staff in local areas for children with disabilities who need supports, they will not get those supports. If they do not get supports, they will not get the help they need to reach their potential. In many cases, you will have situations where life will become incredibly difficult for them and their carers. It is an absolute scandal that in some cases, the majority of posts that need to be staffed in these services are vacant, and that must change.

Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (Deputy Christopher O'Sullivan)

I welcome members of Family Carers Ireland to the Gallery. I am sure there are carers here as well. We really appreciate their attendance here today. I note the Labour Party motion, which sheds light on a very important matter we absolutely must tackle and deal with. I thank the House for the opportunity to speak on this motion and on the important role young carers play in Ireland today. I thank my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Foley, for her comprehensive remarks earlier which showcased the extent of the work that is being done and will be done by the Government to support carers. The Minister's remarks made it clear this Government places extraordinary value on the work done by carers and is committed to continuing to develop these supports, as clearly reflected in the programme for Government.

We are acutely aware that carers, particularly young carers, have a complex variety of needs, including social and educational requirements, that must be addressed by a whole-of-Government Department approach. In that spirit, my colleagues and I across government are committed to working together to address these needs and to provide the appropriate supports that carers, especially young carers, need to ensure they feel supported. It is vitally important we take the time to listen to the voices of carers and hear their stories, experiences and hopes for the sector. The programme for Government has made great strides in responding to many of the concerns that have been raised. This will continue to guide the Government in how we support carers going forward.

The Minister referred earlier to financial commitments such as raising the carer's support grant to its highest ever rate; the extension of the carer's benefit to the self-employed for the first time; the increase in the earnings limit from €450 to €625 after tax; and, of course, the gradual phasing out of the means test for carer's allowance which will take place throughout the lifetime of this Government. The programme for Government also includes commitments around access to employment, training and education supports. This will be led by the Department of Social Protection dormant accounts fund action plan 2024 and by the Department of Education well-being policy and framework.

In March 2024, an interdepartmental working group examining supports for family carers was established. The working group is chaired by the Department of Social Protection, with membership of the group including officials from the Departments of Health and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The work of the interdepartmental working group will be informed by a broader review of means testing under way by the Department of Social Protection, the national carers strategy led by the Department of Health and work being carried out by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth under the action plan for disability services 2024-26 to increase family resilience and provide extra supports for family carers. The interdepartmental group will report its findings to the Ministers for Health, Social Protection and Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

I wish to highlight the health and social care supports provided by the State that help to support family carers, including young carers. The Minister, Deputy Foley, spoke earlier about the carer's guarantee, which aims to standardise supports for family carers regardless of where they live in the country. Services such as home support, personal assistance, day centres and Meals on Wheels support people with care needs in receipt of those services and their family carers, empowering them to take a break from their caring role and look after their own health and well-being. The Government has increased investment in home support services for older people from €495 million in 2020 to approximately €833 million in 2025. Delivery of home support hours has increased from 17.9 million hours in 2019 to more than 24 million hours in 2025, providing support to 57,000 people in receipt of home support services. Funding for Meals on Wheels and daycare services has been maintained for budget 2025, allowing more than 300 Meals on Wheels organisations and almost 300 HSE-funded daycare centres to operate throughout the country.

Respite care is a vital part of the toolkit to support carers. Respite care may involve providing alternative family or residential care for, inter alia, older people, people with physical and intellectual disabilities, mental health conditions, chronic conditions, palliative care needs or addiction to enable the carer to take a short break, holiday or rest. Respite may be provided in the community, within the person's own home, in HSE residential care settings, by agreement with voluntary organisations or by contracted private facilities. It may involve day or overnight respite. There has been a significant increase in funding for respite and disability services, increasing from €49.3 million in 2020 to €134.4 million in 2024. This allowed for 120,515 overnights and 48,099 day respite sessions to be accessed by 6,640 people with disabilities last year.

Since 2021, the home support emergency respite scheme has been in operation, providing emergency respite services either by placement of an in-home care worker or the temporary placement of the care recipient outside the home to deal with the emergency situation. Funding of €600,000 was allocated by the HSE to Family Carers Ireland in both 2023 and 2024 to deliver the scheme and to provide 27,000 hours of respite per year.

This a Government that supports and will continue to support carers' rights throughout the country. It recognises the challenges that carers, especially young carers, face day to day and it is ambitious in its commitment to ensure that they receive the necessary access to training and financial and well-being resources to ensure they can continue in their caring responsibilities. We will continue to listen to the voices that matter most, the carers themselves and their advocates. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure carers and young carers feel supported and empowered to provide their vital care and that they are recognised for their significant efforts.

I listened to the debate in my office and when I came to the Chamber. I fully appreciate the comments made, many of which were accurate, with many underlining the need to do more. I welcome Family Carers Ireland and the carers here today. Deputies Gibney, Stanley and Murphy referred to the means test and the need to abolish it. That is a commitment within the lifetime of this Government. There is a need and an urgency to do it as quickly as possible. That is the direction of travel of the Government. We are increasing income thresholds to allow more people to avail of carer's allowance.

Deputies Boyd Barrett and Stanley mentioned the impact this is having on young people, which is an important issue. These incredible young people are taking it upon themselves to care for older family members or siblings. They are extraordinary but, of course, this has an impact. Mental health and access to education were referenced. We need to take steps to address those issues. That is where the carer's guarantee comes in. It is a programme for Government commitment that carer's will be able to access counselling and education, supports that are vital to ensure carers have good outcomes and their well-being is looked after.

Many Deputies mentioned the need for increased respite. As a constituency TD, I understand the desperate needs of many carers, in particular for increased and expanded respite. Another programme for Government commitment is to expand emergency respite care. We will also focus on that.

The Minister, Deputy Foley, outlined that some young carers over the age of 16 can avail of some financial supports. I accept that some fall outside the criteria. There is a good reason we are supporting and not opposing the motion. There are many elements in it that we need to take on board. For this reason, I thank the Labour Party for tabling the motion. The need to do more for carers is often highlighted in the House by Opposition Deputies and Government backbenchers. It is good that we are focusing on young carers in particular because they do not get the focus they need sometimes. I welcome this opportunity to debate this issue.

Deputy Robert O'Donoghue

I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Mark Wall, on bringing forward this important motion. I stand here on behalf of thousands of young carers throughout Ireland, children, teenagers and young adults who take on immense responsibilities at home, often at great personal cost. They provide essential care for family members with disabilities, illness, mental health conditions and addiction. Their contributions too often go unnoticed.

This year's Young Carers Action Day on 12 March carried the theme "Give me a break". This is more than just a theme; it is a call to action, which my colleague Deputy Wall has taken up for the Labour Party. It reminds us all of the sacrifices, struggles and needs of young carers and that acknowledging them is not enough. We must push for meaningful legislative change.

Young carers juggle school, home duties and emotional burdens that many adults would struggle to bear yet their needs go unrecognised. Many experience stress, social isolation and difficulties in education or employment. They often miss out on the simple right just to be young. Supporting them cannot fall on one sector alone. It requires a cross-departmental approach. The Departments of children, education, health and employment must work together to identify and support young carers from early on. Schools and colleges need dedicated trained staff to recognise and assist young carers. They must ensure that young carers are included in care plans and have access to mental health support. Employers should create pathways for young carers to access work opportunities with flexible arrangements that acknowledge their responsibilities. By taking this joined-up approach, we can ensure young carers are not left behind and no one falls through the cracks.

As previous speakers mentioned, young carers deserve opportunities and our recognition and support. It is our duty to ensure they receive this support. This means better respite services, flexible policies and financial assistance for families in need. It means acknowledging their contributions and easing their burdens. I want to shout out to Benjamin, Sarah Ann, Lucy and Conor, the young people we met in the audiovisual room earlier, who shared their powerful stories with us, both positive and negative, and the struggles they have to endure. I also acknowledge the work of Family Carers Ireland, especially Niamh Finucane and Elayne O'Hara.

Let us commit to the young carers we met and the 67,000 other young carers in Ireland. Their contribution to society is too valuable to ignore. When they say "Give me a break" our response must be a resounding "Yes".

Deputy Conor Sheehan

I welcome our visitors to the Public Gallery. I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. It would be remiss of me to speak about young carers without acknowledging our 2024 Limerick Person of the Year, Ellen Gannon from Newcastle West who cares for her two brothers, nine-year-old twins Andrew and James, both of whom are autistic. Today we heard very powerful testimony from four young carers, Conor, Lucy, Benjamin and Sarah Ann. I commend them on coming in to speak to us. Young carers exist in the shadows, with their work often going unnoticed outside the home. They are at greater risk of mental and emotional difficulties, more likely to be bullied and more prone to experiencing food poverty.

Caring is also a risk factor for children and young people's mental health and well-being. This is often little understood and often invisible to professionals and policymakers. My local university, University of Limerick, launched an important initiative to raise awareness of UL students who are family carers. This could and should be replicated in second level and primary schools across the country. It has developed the expertise and a model. We just need the political will to push this forward. There are more than 15,000 student carers in higher education. It is something that negatively affects the educational attainment of our young people. It is causing people to drop out of third level or reconsider going to third level.

There is also a need for specific training for teachers, who need to be equipped to identify young carers. This could and should be done through the in-service programme. Often, teachers do not know. They think, for example, that a student might be late or not doing homework, etc., whereas a student is often a carer who may be up half the night and may have duties in the home that supersede what they do at school. We also badly need a single point of contact in every school who young carers can approach if they are struggling, late or have to deal with the embarrassment of constantly having to explain themselves.

I would like the Government to engage with the substance of the motion, particularly the two issues I raised in regard to education. We also need to see a plan for when and how the income disregard will be phased out over the lifetime of the Government.

Deputy Alan Kelly

I thank my colleague, Deputy Wall, who has been advocating this for some time, as did his dad before him as well, and I acknowledge the work of Family Carers Ireland.

This is a unique and neat motion. This is a group that cannot stand up for themselves. I was a bit disappointed in the Minister of State's response and in the Minister's response because we have discussed carers in here quite a bit. We have never really gone into the depths of discussing young carers and their difficulties - there are tens of thousands of them - and really need to do that.

The impact it has on these people and their health, education, future and opportunities in life is dramatic and can continue long beyond their youth. Somebody needs to say this out loud so I will. As a State, we are trading on their emotional commitment to their family members. That is a fact. The State is letting them down because we do not have the appropriate facilities in terms of health provision, education provision and other provisions, for the people they are caring for. When it is parents, often it is necessarily elderly care. We are trading on their emotional commitment to their family members. We are almost robbing them of the same opportunity of people of the same age. By doing so, we are preventing them from having the same enjoyment of life or educational opportunities and from the capacity to be ambitious for themselves and to live their lives in a way which may be different to the way they are doing it. We really need to deal with this.

As this is not mentioned in the programme for Government, I would really like the Minister of State to take out of this the following points. As for what we are going to do, tens of thousands of people are affected here. We need a detailed programme of supports across Government. We need, primarily at the very beginning, to identify who these people are because they are not categorised. Whether it is young carers under the age of 18 or young adult carers, we need targeted programmes. We need to ensure that they are not impacted in respect of social protection allowances because of what they are doing. We need targeted healthcare supports for family members.

The Minister of State really should take up the following proposal. If we are not going to provide them with some form of allowance for the work that they do, somewhere along the way we should help them with their educational requirements. Whether financially in grants or in other ways, there has to be a way in which we can intercept and help these people as they advance in life for the sacrifice that they are making for their family members.

We need a whole-of-government approach across all the issues my party and others have raised. Let us, once and for all, get to a point where we recognise the work young carers do in this country.

Question put and agreed to.

^ Ábhair Shaincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Matters ^

An Cathaoirleach Gníomhach (Deputy James O'Connor)

I wish to advise the House of the following matters in respect of which notice has been given under Standing Order 39 and the name of the Member in each case:

Deputy Jen Cummins - To discuss the need for a multidenominational school for Dublin 8.

Deputy Gary Gannon - To discuss the lack of school places for children with additional needs in the north inner city.

Deputy William Aird - To discuss development of a new courthouse in Portlaoise.

Deputy Alan Kelly - To discuss the requirement for a new hackney licence to operate in rural Ireland.

Deputy Dessie Ellis - To discuss the need for a permanent building for Gaelscoil Cholmcille, Coolock, Dublin 17.

Deputy Mark Wall - To discuss the need to re-open the Allenwood day care centre in County Kildare.

Deputy James Geoghegan - To discuss the extension of the red line Luas to Poolbeg.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty - To discuss the need to ensure that The Wombles preschool can continue to operate from Scoil Mhuire National School, Airlie Heights, Lucan.

Deputy Aidan Farrelly - To discuss new mechanisms for the creation of football academies with the FAI and the League of Ireland.

Deputy Shane Moynihan - To discuss safety concerns around the use of signage-only zebra crossings as permitted under Department of Transport guidelines, updated in February 2024.

Deputy Marie Sherlock - To discuss the exclusion of mainstream classes in Holy Child preschool on Sean MacDermott Street, Dublin 1, from special educational needs support.

Deputy Michael Cahill - To discuss the staffing issues and the opening of a wing in the West Kerry Community Hospital.

Deputy Brian Stanley - To discuss the advancement of a new fire station.

Deputies Cian O'Callaghan, Denise Mitchell, Tom Brabazon, Naoise Ó Muirí and Barry Heneghan - To discuss accommodating a new special school on the Belmayne Educate Together secondary school site.

The matters raised by Deputies Jen Cummins, Mark Wall, Brian Stanley and Michael Cahill have been selected for discussion.