Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will run through my other questions. Section 39 organisations recently appeared before the Joint Committee on Health. Why does the HSE have a practice of giving such organisations their funds, making them sign agreements that it knows relate to deficits and giving them loans for the rest of the year? Is there a danger of some such organisations trading recklessly because of the position in which the HSE puts them, which is vulnerable because of the work they do?

On home help hours, I have a request rather than a question. Will the HSE make home help demand-led, purely because it will save it a great deal of money by keeping people out of acute care, which costs multiples of the cost of home help?

The majority of people in politics would believe in that. Is there any intention to realign the acute and non-acute groups in the HSE? I believe it should happen. When will the recruitment embargo end? It was meant to end this month but now I hear it will be September. It is causing issues that will be felt in the long term.

Who is in place in Sláintecare and how much has been put forward in costs? There is an obligation on the Department to keep up to date with what was decided on Sláintecare by the Oireachtas. Where are we with regard to status?