Anger over the lack of support for carers was voiced at Monday night’s Waterford City Council meeting, from which a call went out to the Taoiseach and Minister for Social and Family Affairs to publish the National Carers Strategy.
A motion to that effect was tabled by Cllr Seamus Ryan who issued a reminder to the parties in power that they had committed to its publication as a matter of urgency both in the Social Partnership Agreement ‘Towards 2016’ and in the Programme for Government.
Cllr Ryan said it was a scandal that the government was now backtracking, clearly in the knowledge that the document’s implementation – involving improvement of the lot of under-pressure carers – would have financial implications.
He pointed out that there were 19,000 carers in Waterford and 160,000 countrywide and only 14 pc of them were in receipt of carer’s allowance. The rest were providing unpaid care, sometimes around the clock, for family members or close friends.
See The Munster Express newspaper for full story or subscribe to our PDF version.
