Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. MacLellan. I am glad to hear about the interest in progressing some of the required legislation relating to home care. I read the opening statements and submissions and there is mention by both of legislation for the regulation of home care providers and research by the ESRI on how we would finance an increase in the provision of home care in the long term. I have met a number of advocates for increasing home care services and one of the immediate barriers raised with me is the timely transfer of information and the assessment issues from the service provider, such as the medical facility, nursing homes or the care settings the people are in, to the home care setting. I presume that requires a review of the home and an assessment of supports. That would be particularly relevant for people with disabilities, and I have a particular interest in that. I presume it would need a multidisciplinary team and requires a level of capacity in those settings to carry out that handover moment. While we have heard a little about the required legislation and the possible funding of it, what actions is the HSE taking now to put structures in place? What is the capacity among care providers to facilitate the transfer of service users from one setting to another? It is not the home care setting, but the first step.