Ms Louise Lennon:

I will pick up on the point Deputy Michael Collins made on meals on wheels. As Mr. Boland mentioned earlier, we have a network of some of the providers around the country and they raise many of the issues with which they are dealing such as the lack of co-ordination in funding. To even get meals on wheels onto the hospital discharge plan in order that it is in place for people the day after they come out of hospital would be a good step and would help to prevent the readmission of people into hospital.

One other issue that also is constantly raised with us is the Tús scheme because people are only allowed on it for a year. When that year is up they are off the scheme so not only do they not have a job to go to but the meals on wheels service also is down a body. They should be moved onto a community employment, CE, scheme or something similar. There is obviously a need for employment in such a scenario and there could be more jobs created within these services if there was more structured funding.