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THE MINISTER FOR Health is to ask the National Immunisation Advisory Committee (NIAC) to consider whether family carers could be included in one of the vaccine groups currently being reviewed.
There was criticism this week of a failure to mention family carers when an announcement was made that people with high-risk conditions would be moved up the priority list.
Those aged 16-69 with certain high-risk medical conditions will be moved up from the seventh to the fourth cohort. This is the next group to be vaccinated after those aged 70, which is currently in progress.
The government had said that NIAC would also consider the place of family carers, but the committee did not return with any advice on this group earlier this week.
A spokesperson for the minister confirmed to TheJournal.ie that Minister Stephen Donnelly will ask NIAC to consider whether family carers could be included in one of the other groups the committee is now reviewing.
“Minister Donnelly will ask NIAC to consider whether family carers could be designated as a specific group in one of the cohorts being reviewed by NIAC,” he said. “The Minister is also particularly concerned about the situation for carers of children with very high risk conditions as those children (under 16) can’t receive a vaccine at present.”
David Nolan, who cares for his three-year-old son Ollie, this week expressed his devastation that family carers had not been included in the government’s announcement about prioritising high-risk groups.
Ollie has Type 1 diabetes and requires specific and dedicated care to avoid serious illness. Due to Ollie’s age, he cannot receive a vaccination at any phase of the programme as none of the approved vaccines have been deemed suitable for young children.
His father David, who left his civil service job to care for Ollie, is currently in the very last group on the vaccine priority list. He told TheJournal.ie he was not just concerned about his son catching the virus – which could make him very ill – but also about how the toddler’s care could be managed if he and his wife became ill with Covid-19.
“The government has no contingency plan for what happens if a person’s carer gets sick,” he said. “Now if we get sick with it, we can’t have people coming in here to care for Ollie in case they get infected. I couldn’t put my mother at risk. And the HSE isn’t going to send a carer into a house that has an outbreak.”
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Its a housing stock issue. In Barcelona, their council are literally seizing apartments that have been vacant for more than 3 months. The owners are given half the market value or offered a 90k-900k fine.. It will drastically cut out all this investment/AirBnB trollop. i.e. by corporations with large residential property portfolios. Fair play to them!
@Bernard McWilliams: NOBODY should be profiting from owning a 2nd or 3rd house, why do you think so many politicians are landlords?
It’s a landlords paradise
@Darren Byrne: Only for those with no morals, not paying or avoiding tax and no morgage. i.e not the one off accidental landlord.
@Darren Byrne: we are driving the accidental landlords out and the huge corporate vultures in. They are the only ones profiting from this mess, not the landlord with 1 or 2 houses.
@Darren Byrne: I wish it was. ha went turned a profit on my house in 6 years. because of cost of renovations and repairs. in the immortal words of p Flynn you should try it sometime.
@ed w: The profit is an asset at the end. Even if tenants only pay for half the mortgage. That’s still a big profit.
@ed w: speak for yourself. paper thin walls with mold infestation all day every day. 5€ cilit bang favorite landlord “repair”
Renovation is a big fancy word but reality hits you when your landlord sends a handyman with adidas bag full of silicone and daffer tape.
Being labdlord in dub is like licence to print money and that’s a fact.
Cost of Build is the root cause not Supply which is only a symptom.
News Flash! EU Parliament voted on 21/01/2021:-
- Housing costs should be kept affordable by law !!!!
- Access to adequate housing should be a fundamental European right.
- Call for an EU-wide goal to end homelessness by 2030
- Access to affordable housing as an enforceable human right (like food or water).
EU to the rescue again … Irish political system is inept or controlled by external forces.
37% of Cost of Build of new homes is artificial due to levies and tax. No need.
VAT €28,000
LA Levy €15,000
Social Housing contribution €5000
Conveyancing €6000 .. you can do your own in other countries.
….
So many people in Dublin paying 2k a month rent but can’t get a €1200 a month Mortgage
Surprising? Dealing with HAP is a total bureaucratic pain ( HAP admin is yet another self important QUANGO). Payments get cut off to property owner without notice or clear reason. Impossible to deal with. This is well known to agents. Never again
Homeless figures down over 2,000 in the last 15 months (per Focus Ireland stats). This is great news for the 2,000 families involved.
My personal experience in trying to rent anywhere within Co. Cork. If you bring up HAP it is impossible to get the place you want to rent.
have your say