Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group

05/04/2026

Wishing You and Your Loved Ones a Very Happy and Blessed Easter.

17/03/2026

Happy St.Patricks Day to All Our Carers and Their Families and Friends

20/02/2026

OUR 10th ANNIVERSARY.🥳🥳

19/02/2016. On this date ten years ago the Louth Family Carers Support Group was launched. We have since added East Meath to our name and we are now known as the Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group. Over the last few years we have not had any meetings due first to Covid and then to various illnesses and bereavements and for those of you may have thought the group was no longer in existence we ,Sarah and William have been helping quite a few people who for various reasons ended up as family carers and had no clue as to what they should be doing and what other help is out there for them. We have helped people from Cork to Donegal and we even helped someone who had given up her life abroad to come home and look after an elderly relative. I mention these to show that the group is still active and as I said many times I will do everything I can legally do to ensure the group remains in existence to help and support anyone who is in need of our help. During covid we decided that we would not have a membership fee as so many people were out of work or on short working weeks. We will be having a carers day event in June with date and venue to be confirmed. During carers week we will celebrate our 10th year and when we have a venue confirmed we will let you all know the where and the when we will have our celebration day. To all family carers in the Louth /Meath area and those from other parts of the country please remember we will NEVER turn you away. If we can help you we will if we cannot we will find someone who can. Kind Regards
William Mahony & Sarah Lynch.
Chairperson & Secretary
Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group
0874615465/ 0871347859
[email protected].

31/12/2025

Happy New Year to All Our Carers and Their Families.

19/12/2025

Good Morning Everyone, Due to illnesses and bereavements We have not been able to organize anything for the Xmas Season.
We will be back in The New Year .
We would like to wish Everyone a Happy and Peaceful Christmas and to keep all Our Loved Ones that have Passed in Our Thoughts and Prayers.
We are just a phone call away if anyone needs help at any time , please don't hesitate.

02/11/2025

Hi All. On January 25th 2026 I would have been 20 years as a family carer for my wife Mary. For many of those years Mary suffered the results of several strokes and for the last 30 months she was in severe pain which only got worse over time. In June 2023 I was told she would not see Christmas. She did see Christmas and another one too. She fought to stay and with the help of the Public Health Nurses and the Carers who came to tend to her she really put up a great fight but the toll on her was body was horrific. on the 25/08/25 I sat beside her bed and even though she could not speak I told her how I felt and how much she meant to me and mostly I told her that I loved her and I thanked her for all the years of joy and happiness we had together and I said to her that if she wanted to she could let go of the pain and a short time later she did and she passed away with me holding her hand and she holding mine.
Although I am no longer a family carer I have no intention of giving up being Chairperson of the Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group. As I said to a lovely young lady who had cared for her Mum who sadly passed away she had a unique experience that most of the other family carers did not have and she could understand what it was like when the cared for person passes away and now I am in that same position and I will continue to help family carers and it does not matter where they are in the country both myself and Sarah will not and never have given up helping others. We have helped people from Cork and Donegal and several other places.
We will be having a get together before Christmas and as we will be 10 years in existence in February 2026 we will have to do something special to celebrate our anniversary. We will let you all know whatever it may be all in due course.
Thank you all for your patience but circumstances kept us from doing as much as we would have liked but we are back because we never really went away we just had family matters which had to take our attention first.
Kind Regards
William Mahony
Chairperson
Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group
0874615465
0871347859
[email protected]

31/10/2025

Good Evening All, We would like to say that due to personal reasons and the passing of Loved Ones We have not been able to have Our Monthly Meetings.This will be back to normal in Jan 2026. We did have Our stand at The Necret Cancer Conference and met up with some other groups who we will be corresponding with. We also will be organizing a catch up closer to Xmas. Some of Our Committee have been meeting with Carers that have had issues and have done Our best to get them the help they need. Please don't hesitate to contact any of Us if You need help with something.

08/10/2025

Many Thanks to Councillor Stephen McKee who keeps Our Louth East Meath Family Carers Support Group informed on a regular basis.

💰💶 Budget 2026 in a Nutshell 💶💰

⚡️ Energy & Climate
💡 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity extended to help with energy bills
🌊 €8 million investment in offshore renewable energy data mapping
🔌 €3.5 billion investment in Ireland’s energy grid
🏡 €558 million for residential and community energy upgrades / retrofitting

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Social Protection & Families

👶 Tackling Child Poverty – Largest ever increase in child support payment:
➡️ +€8 for under 12s (to €58/week)
➡️ +€16 for over 12s (to €78/week)
💵 Working Family Payment income threshold increased by €60
🔥 Fuel Allowance up by €5 to €38/week, and now available to Working Family Payment recipients
❤️ Carer’s Allowance disregard increased to €1,000 (single) / €2,000 (couple) – from July 2025
💰 Carer’s Benefit income limit up to €825 – from July 2026
📈 €10 increase for all weekly social welfare rates (benefitting pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, jobseekers and lone parents)
🎄 Christmas Bonus for 1.5m social welfare recipients
👩‍🦽 Domiciliary Care Allowance up €20/month to €380
🧒 Back-to-school clothing & footwear allowance extended to two and three year-olds.

🏥 Health

👩‍⚕️ 3,300 additional healthcare professionals
🏡 1.7 million home support hours
🏥 500 new nursing home support scheme clients
🏥 Expansion of injury units, acute beds, and surgical hubs
🚑 Expansion of emergency service departments & National Ambulance Service
🧠 Investment in mental health services, including su***de prevention, CAMHS, and Traveller mental health initiatives
💶 €1.56 billion in capital healthcare investment
🩺 Investment to expand and improve addiction services throughout the country

💨 V**e Tax – Key Figures

📅 Effective: 1 November 2025
💶 Rate: €0.50 per millilitre on all e-liquids
💰 Impact: ≈ €1 per standard 2ml v**e
🧾 Scope: Applies at first supply; suppliers must register with Revenue
❌ Targeted prevention campaign to tackle youth va**ng rates

📚 Education & Special Education

👩‍🏫 1,717 new SNAs (total: 24,900)
🍎 860 new special education teachers
🏫 Increased capitation rates for special schools, primary and post primary schools
🧩 €16m to roll out Education Therapy Service
📚Increased DEIS & DEIS+ funding
💰 €1.6 billion capital investment in schools

🏠 Housing

🏗 Overall over 20% funding increase for Dept of Housing for 2026
💶 €7 billion total housing investment (€5bn capital)
🏢 9% VAT rate for apartment developments
🏡 €2.9bn to build 10,200 new social homes
🏠 Support for 15,000 starter homes through First Home Scheme, Vacancy Grants, Affordable Purchase & Cost Rental
🔧 €205m to remove barriers to housing delivery
👵 €130m for adaptation grants (older people & disabilities)
🏚 €140m for retrofitting social homes
🧱 €293m for defective home remediation
🏘 €50m for state-owned temporary accommodation
🏙 €300m to the Urban Regeneration and Development Fund

🚰 Water & Energy Infrastructure

💧 €12.2bn for water & wastewater services
🚿 €1.4bn to Uisce Éireann
⚡️ €3.5bn to ESB and EirGrid
🏘 €558m for residential & community energy upgrades
🌍 €209m for climate action & environmental leadership
🌾 €82m to support a Just Transition in the Midlands

♿️ Disability Services

💶 €3.8bn total investment
🏡 9,000 people to receive residential care (250 new placements)
🧒 1,400 young people finishing school to access day services, plus 50 new places for older adults
🤝 150,000 hours of home support & personal assistance
💤 10,000 overnight & 15,000 day respite sessions

👶 Childcare, Childcare & Early Years

👧 €125m extra funding (total €1.5bn investment) in Early Learning & Childcare
👧🏼285,000 children to benefit from the National Childcare Scheme
🧑🏽‍🦱105,000 children to benefit from ECCE.
👧🏼over 2000 new childcare places via Building Blocks programme.
🗣️1.3bn for Tusla child welfare and protection services, a 14% increase

🚆 Transport

🚍 €940m for Public Service Obligation transport
🚇 €2bn to progress MetroLink
🛣 Continued investment in major road projects:
- Adare Bypass
- N5 Ballaghaderreen to Scramogue
- M28 Cork to Ringaskiddy
🚉 Continued rollout of DART+ & BusConnects (Dublin & regional cities)
🚆 Cork Area Commuter Rail Phase 1 & Enterprise fleet replacement
🚴 Major greenway and active travel projects

👮‍♀️ Justice

🚔 €110m for 1,000 new Garda recruits + 200 civilian staff
🧍‍♂️ Further Garda Reserve intakes
💰 €19m for Garda overtime
🏛 €39m for Prison Service staffing
⚖️ €11m for Courts Service
👥 €6.7m for Probation Service & Local Safety Partnerships
👦 €7.3m for Youth Justice interventions
🚨 €11.5m for Domestic, Sexual & Gender-Based Violence initiatives
🏗 €390m capital investment for new Garda stations, digital tools, and new aircraft
⛓ €67.9m capital for Prison Service
🛂 €8.5m for immigration system upgrades
🏛 €55m for new Family Court at Hammond Lane

🧠 Mental Health

👩‍⚕️ +300 staff and expansion of services
🛏 31 new mental health beds
💬 More su***de prevention, Traveller mental health, eating disorder supports
🧒 Increased CAMHS access

🪖 Defence

👨‍✈️ +400 new Permanent Defence Force members
👩‍💼 +50 new civilian posts, +70 new civil servants

🌾 Agriculture

🐄 €85m for Bovine TB eradication
🚜 €335m for TAMS capital investment grants
🌱 +€20m for ACRES scheme (supporting 53,000 farmers)
🐑 €20m for Sheep Welfare Scheme (benefiting 17,000 farmers)

🎓 Higher Education

💶 €500 permanent cut in student fees
🔧 17% reduction in apprenticeship contributions
📚 SUSI income threshold up to €120,000
🎓 30,000 students get €200–€430 SUSI payment increase
🎓 Postgrad grant up from €4,000 → €4,500
🧱 €79m for apprenticeships
💡 35% R&D tax credit
🏥 1,100+ new healthcare places
🧠 €1m for student mental health
♿️ €3m for student disability supports
🏗 €810m capital funding

🌿Nature, Biodiversity & Heritage

💐Record €256m for nature restoration and heritage
🐝20% increase to over €100m for National Parks and Wildlife Services to accelerate Nature Restoration and the protection of species and habitats
🗿10% increase funding for National Monuments, Built Heritage, and the Heritage Council

🌄 Rural & Community Development - Gaeltacht and Islands

🏘️ €21m Town & Village Renewal (+€1m)
🚜 €17m Local Improvement Scheme (+€2m)
🥾 €17m Outdoor Recreation (+€1m)
🌾 €12m CLÁR (+€1m)
🤝 €59m Community Services Programme (+€4m)
⚡ €5m to launch new RAPID-type programme
🏛️ €20m Community Centre Fund (+€3m)
📈 €159m total allocation in 2026 (+29%)
🗣️ +€3m Language Planning | +€2m Irish Language Schemes | +€1.5m Gaeltacht Supports
🤝 +€2m for North–South cooperation (Foras na Gaeilge & Ulster-Scots Agency)
🏢 +€2.5m for Údarás na Gaeltachta
🧱 Capital funding €55m (↑ from €30m, +80%) for key projects: Inis Oírr pier, Harcourt St. Hub, Coláiste Lurgan redevelopment

🎭 Culture, Communications & Sport

⚽️ An additional €10.8m for Sport Ireland, including:
➡️ €3m for League of Ireland academies
➡️ €1.6m for intercounty GAA players and women’s rugby development
🎨 €84.9m for Arts & Culture projects
🌐 €433m to complete the National Broadband Plan
📬 €5m to strengthen the Post Office Network

🍽️ Backing Irish Business - Budget 2026

💶 Permanent VAT reduction for food, catering & hairdressing businesses
👷 150,000 jobs supported in the sector
🏪 75% of businesses employ fewer than 10 people
☕ Applies to local cafés, restaurants & family-run venues nationwide
📉 Aimed at offsetting major cost increases and boosting sector resilience
🚫 Not extended to beauty salons – not permitted under EU VAT Directive (Annex III)
🖥️ €1.4m to establish a National Artificial Intelligence Office

🛠️Self-Employed changes

💶 +€1,318 increase in 2% USC band ceiling – lower USC for modest earners
🧪 R&D tax credit up to 35% (+5pp) – higher payment threshold for innovators
💰 Entrepreneur Relief (CGT) limit raised from €1m → €1.5m
📈 Stamp Duty exemption for firms with market cap < €1bn – supports start-ups
🧾 E-invoicing rollout – self-employed to prepare for new VAT system
👩‍💻 KEEP scheme extended to 2028 – helps SMEs retain key staff with equity

💼 Financial Services

🌍 Foreign Dividends: Enhanced participation exemption – simplifies double taxation, no Exchequer cost
📉 Investment Tax Cuts: Life Assurance, Investment undertaking & ETFs tax reduced from 41% → 38%
🏦 Stamp Duty Relief: Exemption for listed Irish companies with market cap < €1bn (e.g. Euronext Dublin)

🌊 Marine Budget €157.7m total funding for the fisheries sector

20/09/2025

Come visit our stand at Necret Cancer Conference.

19/09/2025

Visit Our Carers Stand , Tomorrow in the City North Hotel.

10/09/2025