Carers’ Association criticises Department of Jobs

Despite "repeated requests", the Department of Jobs has failed to engage with the National Carers' Strategy (NCS), the main advocacy body for family carers has said.

In a review of the 2012 strategy published on Tuesday, the Carers' Association said it was not clear that the department recognised the strategy's importance.

“Despite repeated requests to do so DJEI (Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation) has yet to engage with the National Carers’ Strategy.

“It is not clear that they recognise the importance of the strategy at all. DJEI has not contributed to either the Government’s progress reports, or yet agreed to meet with the monitoring group.

“This is especially disappointing given the role DJEI has been assigned in the strategy to support working carers and former carers who wish to return to the workforce after their caring role comes to an end.

“Given the focus contained within the NCS’s vision statement on ‘empowering carers to participate fully in economic life’, the involvement of the department in the strategy is of utmost importance.”

In a statement, the department said it was “not aware of any recent or repeated requests to this department to engage with the National Carers’ Strategy.

"Supporting carers - or any other person - to return to the workforce is the function of the Department of Social Protection, and that department does that actively through a range of initiatives," it said.

The department said its only function was to “support the employment rights of all people in the workforce, including carers”.

It said that it would continue to encourage employers and employees to provide “flexible workplaces that meet the needs of both the employer and employees”.

Family Carers’ Scorecard

The Family Carers’ Scorecard document published by the Carers’ Association assessed 42 actions in the national strategy that were designed to “recognise, support and empower” family carers.

It found that only one of the objectives had been achieved overall, four showed good progress, 19 showed initial progress, 10 showed no progress at all, and that, “most disappointingly”,eight had regressed.

The Carers’ Association said it was now imploring the Government to adequately resource the strategy’s full implementation, “to make a real positive difference in the lives of Ireland’s over 187,000 family carers”.

Diarmuid O’Sullivan of the Carers’ Association said there were good things happening in relation to the implementation of the strategy, but that positive things could be “overshadowed by a particularly grievous budget cut”.

The housing adaptation scheme had effectively been halved from €79 million in 2011 to €38 million in 2014, he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said that only “crisis applicants” had any chance of getting a housing adaptation or a mobility aid grant.

Case study

Damien Hickey (33), from Castletroy in Co Limerick, cares for his grandmother Marie Hickey (76), who raised him.

Following a series of strokes, Marie lost her speech. Her eyesight is failing and she has many health issues including AAA (abdominal aortic aneurysm) and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

Mr Hickey said he had received just three days respite in the past 12 months, in order to attend a wedding. He receives five hours home help each week, but because of his own health issues he needs more, having recently been diagnosed with depression and anxiety.

Mr Hickey said the cuts to the respite care grant and to respite care itself were very difficult to deal with.

“It’s devastating to see how 19 per cent was just taken from people who have so little as it is.”

He said the respite grant was actually often used to help people fund the running of their homes and to pay their bills.

“We need these services so much.”