Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman can stop me whenever I am out of time but I will probably come in during the second round of questioning anyway.

Home helps in some CHO areas, particularly those in counties Cork and Kerry and in my area of Sligo-Leitrim, are facing an effective moratorium at the moment. The Minister has been saying that X number of hours have been funded but the experience on the ground is that output is not meeting demand. While I acknowledge it is important to stay within budget, when it comes to the most vulnerable in society, none of us would oppose a supplementary budget for a demand-led service. That needs to be care-led and not budget-led.

What is going on in the CHO 4 area? Why are we out of money? When I raised this matter in the Dáil on 14 May, the Taoiseach answered by saying loads more money had been given to this area. Anecdotal evidence suggests the additional moneys were hoovered up in meeting labour relations commitments and obligations in providing care, travel subsistence payments or whatever else. Things are bad if in June we cannot fund any more home help services and depend on people either getting better or passing on before more packages can be made available. What is the real position and what is being done about it?