Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I cannot and do not intend to micromanage services. We are the policy makers and we must ensure that the policy framework is in place to ensure people have access to a safe service. We also fight for the budgets required to allow that to happen. It would be ridiculous to micromanage a service. I would spend my life running around the hundreds of services provided in this country. That is an issue for another day.

We have a specific budget for home care packages. I made this point earlier in respect of extending the fair deal scheme. We are not suggesting that we will distribute the pot of money set aside for long stay care throughout the community. It is a question of how we access the budget and the process we put in place to ensure it is as fair and transparent as the fair deal scheme. The review has been delayed slightly because of the various issues that arose during the year but we are still continuing with it.