Mr. Paul Reid:

I thank the Deputy. My colleague, Ms Anne O'Connor, will comment as well.

The home help supports are significant for us in terms of the demands of demographics that we face as a country. With the funding that we have this year, as the Deputy will see, we have set out the number of people that will support. We have sought additional funding, as part of our winter plan, from Government. Positively, this year we have secured additional funding, not in December but in October, which has been invested already. Enhanced home care supports will be put in up to Christmas and during the winter.

Our service plan for next year has to be agreed shortly, but the Deputy will have heard it publicly announced in the Government budgeting process that an extra 1 million home help hours will be deployed into the community settings. Those are welcome.

Our total winter funding of €26 million is very significant. Last year, that was €10 million in total. A significant portion of that is being put into home help, and, indeed, the nursing home support scheme and delayed transfer of care beds.