"It is very appropriate that today May 5th - 'The International Day of the Family' is being marked by a press conference calling on all Members of the Parliament to sign a Written Declaration which asks Member States to admit Carers to social insurance schemes" This was stated by Marian Harkin at the press conference in the Parliament which was co-hosted by Marian Harkin, Kathy Sinnott and Marie Panayotopoulos-Cassiotou."

"Carers, in particular family Carers are the glue that holds society together - without family Carers health systems would collapse - yet the work of Carers is often unrecognised and certainly undervalued. Just because the work of Carers does not appear on the balance of payments or is not factored into GDP figures, many policy makers ignore the contribution of Carers. However, in Ireland the figures from the 2006 census indicate that family Carers save the State in excess of €2.5bn per year, therefore it is only equitable that Carers be admitted to social insurance systems.

Carers very often have no choice but to care and they often have no choice when it comes to working either full or part time. This means that Carers not only lose out on income but also on pension entitlements and there is a danger that today's Carers will become the next generation of poorer older people. We can help to ensure this does not happen if we admit Carers to social insurance schemes" Marian Harkin said.

According to Kathy Sinnott "The Carers Interest Group in the European Parliament has played an important role in putting Carers onto the EU policy agenda. As part of this the EU Commission has now included family Carers as part of the EU workforce for Health in the Green Paper and this is a direct result of the submissions received from the Interest Group".