The Government’s record on carers is ‘not positive by any means’, Family Carers Ireland has said. 

In the 2020 Programme for Government, the coalition made a number of promises to carers - such as extending free GP care and to examine the way carers' pensions are calculated. 

Family Carers Ireland set up a scorecard to monitor delivery of those promises and Head of Communications Catherine Cox said the record is not positive. 

“Of the 18 commitments, they actually scored regressive on four,” she said. 

“That means things have actually got worse. 

“They scored no progress on six, they scored limited progress on five and they did receive good progress on three. 

“Out of 18, it’s not a positive report by any means.” 

Election looming

Ms Cox said Family Carers Ireland is disappointed with the lack of delivery and there is not much time to make progress before the next General Election. 

“They committed to doing this,” she said. 

“Time is definitely running out. 

“We saw just this week, they’ve announced a referendum next March to support care in the home and value family carers. 

“Unless they put those words into action and truly support family carers with adequate resources, then unfortunately those words mean nothing.” 

According to the CSO, in 2016, 4.1% of the population, or 195,263 people, were providing unpaid care to someone. 

Six of out 10 carers were women and just over half, 52.7%, were aged between 40 and 59.

Main image: An old-aged pensioner. Image: Yon Marsh / Alamy Stock Photo