Parents who care for sick kids need the most help

MINISTER Roderic O’Gorman’s half-baked promise to look into doing more for parents who provide care in the home is not exactly a surprise.

As the clock ticks down to the March referendums, it’s likely the Government may promise to consider any number of goodies in return for victory in a ballot which, though originally seen as an opportunity for some satisfying virtue-signalling, has unexpectedly turned controversial with the potential to become an embarrassing defeat.

Critics of the referendums say they are wholly symbolic and will make no practical difference to families or carers.

But that will change if the vote heralds support for the most overlooked and taken for granted section of society, the portion of our

300,000 unpaid family carers who are parents and help save the State more than €20bn each year.

An eighth of the population aged 15 years and over provide regular care to others. A large number are parents of severely disabled or seriously sick children who receive a means-tested carer’s allowance after an application process that many find humiliating; others get nothing at all for their dedication.

O’Gorman, above, says he has a ‘very’ open mind about giving more supports to parents who work in the home. That’s all well and good but he should target his supports at parents who really need more help, whose beloved children require constant care and will be dependent for the rest of their lives. Not at parents blessed with healthy children, who are so comfortably off that one parent can withdraw from the workforce while still saving their child benefit.