Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to move on to the number of staff.

I note from looking at the different employee statistics that there have been small increases in acute services, social care and so on. An aspect I want to touch on is those directly employed in home help. The numbers there have gone from 3,700 in 2014 to just 3,100 last year, which is a 14% reduction. One of the biggest issues coming across our desks relates to the quandary of people being approved for home care packages but not having the staff available to implement what was approved. Can the HSE expand on where the issue is with the reduction of the staff who are directly employed in home help?