Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have talked to the HSE and the other agencies to see what solutions can be put in place. The big difficulty is that the great strength that is the flexibility of agency provision for some is the greatest weakness in this case. With a tracheotomy, for example, if something goes wrong, one literally has three minutes to change it. It is a life or death situation. We cannot have a situation where it is hit and miss; there must be continuity of care. Denise and Dermot are two people but my concern is that there is a small number of other families who do not want to rock the boat about the care provision and the continuity of care.

I reiterate the point that this home care package needs to be reconsidered. I do not believe it is about money, rather it is about how the service is provided. That is the aspect of it that must be examined if we are not to find more families presenting with this type of very complex and difficult situation. I ask the Taoiseach to examine that continuity of care in the context of a review of the home care packages. This cannot be delivered on an agency basis because sometimes outsourcing is also about outsourcing responsibility. It is at that point that the change needs to be made.

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