Yet again we see how little regard that this Government have for carers who they abandoned during the COVID 19 Pandemic by the cruel decision not to include them in the €1000 Covid bonus offering them a ” bank holiday ” for their support and work over the past 28 months .

This Government have no understanding of caring for vulnerable individuals and they have demonstrated this lack of understanding for over 10 years by abandoning carers and people with disabilities throughout the pandemic.

The Government have said that they are rewarding all workers with a new special bank holiday on the 18th March however the fail to acknowledge that carers do not get to take Bank holidays working 24/7 365 bdays each year .

During COVID 10 carers watched as respite, day care services and personal assitants all disappeared as they had no choice but to isolate in their own homes protecting their loved ones.

During COVID 19 carers watched as specialist staff disappeared to be redeployed by the HSE into contact tracing and swabbing resulting in significant regression in 1000s of people with disabilities and forcing carers to commit to 24/7 care which has created a cohort of carers with major medical conditions as a result of the work that they had to perform in supporting their loved ones.

During COVID 19 as the cost of living increased carers suffered significant poverty having to fund extra activities to bring some variety to those  that they cared about with many carers now in significant hardship as a direct result of these efforts .

Today the Government ignored carers yet again notwithstanding the fact that carers are saving the state €6 Billion per year and offered them a ” bank holiday ” which if course they can’t take .

Carers in Ireland need to organise and fast or we can expect this treatment to continue .Support our campaign for a ,

.Living Wage

. Non-Means Testing of the Carers Allowance

. Contributory Pension for all carers

. Career opportunities for carers

. Respite plan on an annual basis .

This Government have proven that they will not offer any meaningful support for both carers and people with disabilities and enough is enough .

 

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