Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will do so, if Ms O'Connor does not mind. It is not even about recycling hours; it is about recycling minutes. There was a good home help system in place where people were allocated hours and home help staff were directly employed by the HSE. They were paid properly, paid for their mileage and all of that. Now we have home helps criss-crossing country areas to do minutes here and minutes there. It is not a good use of anybody's time. I would ask Mr. Reid to examine the home help system as well because it is saving thousands. We talk about money, having to work within a budget and whatever is allocated but it is not even about that. It is about the use of time if somebody has to spend time taking up an acute bed in a hospital.

I am also concerned about the out-of-hours coverage linking to primary care. I refer to the Erris region in particular, where one doctor is responsible for the care and safety of patients. Doctors are covering 1,000 sq. km day and night without a break from Friday to Monday. The population and the size of the area demands a much greater number of doctors. Doctors are going above and beyond the call of duty and they cannot access the out-of-hours service. I believe the service there was cut from 26 to 20 weekends per year. There has been an announcement about a new primary care centre that is to be built and expressions of interest have been invited. Does that mean the money has been allocated for it? What is the next step in that process?