John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. Bryan Meldrum and Mr. Ed Murphy. As with Deputy Peadar Tóibín, I have reservations about the privatisation of the home help service, purely because one could set one's own price if it were privatised. If there is privatisation, circumstances will change.

I agree with Deputy Peadar Tóibín’s remarks on elderly people. I spent 28 years working with the HSE as a community welfare officer. I was working with elderly people and assessing them for the fair deal and nursing home subvention schemes. The last thing an elderly person wants is to go to a nursing home. The elderly really do want to stay at home.

I do not fully understand some of the remarks of the delegates. Who will pay for the home care package to keep the elderly at home? Will some receive the HSE subsidy in regard to the home care package while others will not?

I do not understand how the year-on-year figure of €117 million in savings is arrived at. If the same number of hours are required for care provision, how will the organisation make a saving? Does it pay its staff less? I cannot figure it out at all. It was stated there could be a saving of €159 million in respect of the fair deal by keeping people out of nursing homes and caring for them in the community. Have the delegates pencilled in the cost of community care? Are they suggesting that some part of the fair deal budget should be open to be used for keeping people within the home? If so, I would agree with that. If a person can be kept at home for half the cost, it makes sense to consider it.

My final concern relates to the existing home helps employed by the HSE. Will they risk losing their jobs if we privatise home help? Is their only option employment by companies such as that of the delegates?