Full-time carers could get 12-hour respite break per month

Full-time carers of people with special needs could receive 12 hours as a respite break every month under legislation to be introduced this month.

The Carer’s Respite Break Bill could benefit up to 80,000 full-time carers looking after a disabled person. The scheme would cost up to €70 million annually.

Fine Gael TD Jim Daly, who will introduce legislation as a Private Member's Bill, said, however, it was not a question of "throwing money" at the problem.

“The real way to deal with respite is to give people 12 hours by putting it in a statute that is not haphazard like home-help hours.”

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The Cork South West TD said “if you have someone looking after an elderly bed-bound relative in a rural area and they receive a payment for that care, that is great and good, but they are still not getting a break”.

People still have to “beg, borrow or plead for home-help hours”, which is a discretionary provision, he said. Or they have to ask a relative to come from Dublin or elsewhere for the weekend, which is not satisfactory either.

He said a statutory provision guaranteeing a 12-hour break once a month would ensure people got that respite. The home-help service was so haphazard, great in some areas and very poor in others, and carers could not rely on getting a break.

People who receive the once-off annual domiciliary care grant as full-time carers of people with special needs would be eligible for the scheme, an estimated 80,000 people.

Go for lunch

Mr Daly said the Bill would provide a “simple basic relief for those who work so hard caring for the less well off”.

“It may be just to go for lunch, get their hair done, go to the cinema or an evening meal, or just give a little time with another family member who loses out on time with their parents due to the massive commitment to the person being cared for.”

Mr Daly said if the legislation was passed the carer would have at least one day every month to look forward to.

The legislation provides that an eligible carer is one in receipt of the domiciliary carer’s grant. The HSE would operate the scheme, and the full-time carer would be relieved by a carer on a panel established by the health service.

The legislation also provides for a recruitment process for eligible carers to apply to register for the panel to provide relief care.

Family Carers Ireland, the charity representing carers, has said that respite care is universally regarded as one of the key interventions to support the health and wellbeing of carers, and is central to the sustainability of care-giving efforts.