People in Leitrim struggling to get home carers to look after sick and elderly

People in County Leitrim are struggling to find home carers to look after their sick and elderly, the Dáil has heard.

Sligo-Leitrim Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny spoke on the subject during a recent debate on a motion on strengthening the rights of workers.

Deputy Kenny said: “One of the issues that often comes to light - I am sure in the Minister of State's constituency as well - is where we have people who are looking to get home help, for example, but they cannot get workers.

“We are told that they are advertising and they cannot get anyone. The reality is that such workers are being paid approximately €16 an hour.

“That is only about €2 above the minimum wage for work which is very difficult and very hard.

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“There is a real, high responsibility in looking after elderly and sick people, yet they are on that kind of salary and that is the salary which is being offered to them by the State.”

He went on to say that the Government must ensure that such workers are paid properly so that their services are available to people.

“There needs to be recognition that if we are to get people to do those kind of jobs, we need to pay them properly and the first people that have to pay them properly is the State.

“If the State and the HSE, which are directly employing workers in this regard, pay adequate and proper wages, the other providers will also have to step up to the mark and pay adequate and proper wages. That has failed to happen.”

Deputy Kenny acknowledged the high employment rate nationwide, but warned about the low conditions faced by some workers.

“Of course, we enjoy pretty good employment. A lot of employers cannot get workers.

“That is one of the issues we have across our economy, but we also have an issue where we have a very large number of people who are in precarious employment and do not have the standards that they need to have.

“Those standards need to be put in place and that will only happen if the State has a firm hand of regulation to ensure they are put in place.

“That is why it is so important we have trade unions and that more and more workers recognise they would be better off if they were in a trade union.

“The difficulty is that the employer can just turn their back on that and will not allow trade unions into many workplaces. That is an issue that needs to be dealt with.”

He continued by saying that the Government must ensure that workers’ rights, particularly when it comes to trade unions, are upheld.

“While the Government has this notion that employers, particularly some of the large multinational employers in the country, can somehow or other step outside of the norm, that is not appropriate.

“We need to have a situation where we guarantee that people who work hard, who get up in the morning very early, who contribute to society and do everything right also have rights, and that those rights are underwritten by the State.

“That is why the State has to come in to ensure that it underwrites those rights. So far, Government has failed to do that.”

He concluded by welcoming the motion which was put before the Dáil and by calling on the Government to “sit up and listen”.