A Donegal TD has called for family carers to be prioritised when it comes to the vaccine roll-out.
Donegal independent TD Thomas Pringle says Carers are overworked, undervalued and the State is completely over-reliant on the unpaid caring work done by family members around the country.
The Donegal TD has submitted a parliamentary question asking where carers were in the national roll-out plan for the vaccine. He described the response as beyond disappointing and worrying.
The response stated that the priority was to “first vaccinate and protect directly the most vulnerable amongst us”, with a focus on the cohort of people over 65 in long-term residential care facilities, and healthcare workers in frontline services often caring for the most vulnerable.
However, it said further that: “Family carers are a diverse group, therefore, each individual will be vaccinated in the group that is appropriate to them.”
Deputy Pringle said: “Family carers might be a diverse group and people receiving care are a diverse group but there is a common theme here – vulnerability. People are being cared for at home instead of in healthcare or residential settings.
He said: “If carers were working in those settings they would be classed as frontline healthcare workers and would have been among the first vaccinated.”
