Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her questions.

On the recruitment piece and the strategic workforce advisory group, SWAG, one of the most important issues in the delivery of home care is that there must be agreed standards. Deputy Ellis raised this as well. Legislation is coming in the new year on standards for home care across public, private and voluntary providers. That is important. Recommendation 10 from the SWAG report was that Solas review access to QQI modules. A person must have a level 5 QQI qualification so it is currently looking at that. We will certainly take the Senator's comments on board.

I am working closely with the Minister of State, Deputy English, at the moment. We have held several meetings and will make an announcement in the next few weeks. The work is ongoing with our departmental officials on the permits. As I said, one of the recommendations was that we should go outside the EU to try to recruit more staff. The recommendation is that 1,000 should be provided. If we recruited 500 or 600 people - most home care workers see six people a day - that would almost deal with the waiting list.

As a result of Covid-19, we are seeing more people being referred for home care and the cases are much more complex. Many of the people who need, receive and deserve home care, need two carers at a time if they have to be hoisted or lifted or for whatever medical needs they have. The most important thing is that we can provide home care because people want to get the care they need in their homes.

On the Assisted Decision Making (Capacity) (Amendment) Bill, it is important legislation that represents significant legal reform. To touch on my piece which is the Mental Health Act 2001, it has been confirmed it will be priority legislation after Christmas. There are approximately 130 heads in that Bill. It is a massive Bill and involves a huge amount of work. We are currently working through it and about 40 of the heads have been completed, but work is ongoing. One person has been working on this Bill for two years. We have received great support from the Attorney General's office and across the whole Department. I spoke to the Chief Whip about this so it will be prioritised after Christmas.

I will hand over to Mr. Brunell to respond to the other question.