Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the emphasis that Mr. John Dunne from the Carers Association has put on income support. Unfortunately, this will be another budget in which holding what one has becomes a worthy objective. Most of the groups coming before us hope at least to hold onto what they have, alongside trying to make progress on non-financial issues.

An issue I come across increasingly frequently is the lack of home support and support in the community. Families are coming to us in crisis with elderly relatives who are about to be discharged from their hospitals. These families do not have the capacity to care for their relatives in the home but there is a lack of facilities in the community. Often they are forced to make the harrowing decision to refuse to take their relatives out of hospital even though it may not be the most suitable environment. Mr. Dunne called for the criteria governing the allocation of those resources to be published. What is the current position?