Local family carers struggling to make ends meet, according to new survey

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70% of family carers say they struggle to make ends meet, according to a new survey.

The report by Family Carers Ireland also found that 55% have had to give up work in order to provide care.

The lack of services to support carers and those they’re looking after, is also being highlighted again.

Richie Molloy of the South Tipperary branch of Family Carers Ireland says it’s just not right that day care centres still haven’t reopened:

“Now they’re putting the closure of the day care centres down to difficulties with transport, difficulties with how they’re going to set it up.

“But the bottom line is, they have managed to bring back the schools, and they’ve put the money into putting in the various screens in the school and so on.

“The government will have to do the same for the day care centres. You can’t expect day care centres to open if they don’t get the extra funding.”

Richie, who’s also a local councillor, says the situation would be a bit more manageable for carers if there was more in-home care available:

“The harsh reality is that the staff just aren’t there. I can really only speak for South Tipperary, but I presume it’s the same nationwide. The facts are, there were people interviewed a year and a half ago – they still haven’t actually been hired.

“They went through all the process; Garda vetting, qualifications, all the rest of it. But the bottom line is that they haven’t actually been taken on by the HSE.

“That’s where the blockage in the system is. And that affects carers in a huge way because you’re very much left to struggle.”