Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy raised many valid points. Home care is one facet of supporting people to live at home. Some people receive seven hours a week and others 14 hours per week. The various CHOs are probably challenged in trying to spread the hours as much as they possibly can so that as many people as possible get the supports. We also have almost 300 day-care centres in Ireland. These are another support for older people to re-engage. Many people found it hard to re-engage after Covid and found it difficult to get back into their communities. We also have the provision of meals on wheels. Today, for example, 400,000 people in Ireland will receive a delivery from meals on wheels. It is so much more than just a nutritious meal. It means that someone is coming to the door, handing in the meal and there is contact. It is like the postman, in rural areas especially.

One area I am a bit concerned about in relation to older people is that not everyone has reconnected since Covid. Some people are still nervous about Covid and finding it hard to reconnect. There is great collaboration with Healthy Ireland. We also provide funding for Age Friendly Ireland. We are trying to support people with independent living. We have a pilot under way in Waterford. It is the first of its kind. St. Joseph's nursing home, a beautiful listed building, had been vacant for many years. By the end of the first quarter of 2023, we will have 71 independent living apartments and own front door units for older people from the inner city in Waterford. These people will have the opportunity to right-size. They may be living in a house with three bedrooms upstairs and they may not be able to manage the stairs.

The point I want to make is that the voice and choice of the older person will always be heard. Nobody will be forced to do this. What we want to do is put in place wrap-around social supports so that, for example, people will know where they can get their meals on wheels, support if they need forms filled in and different social care supports that we all do in our constituency offices every day of the week. We want to support older people like that. It is very important that we can reach those people. We have been engaging with marginalised groups via targeted and public stakeholder engagement. We received 210 responses to recent public consultation and we have regular meetings. For example, yesterday I met Age Friendly Ireland and I met Sage Advocacy the day before yesterday. I have regular meetings with all these organisations to make sure I am hearing what they are hearing. There is no better place to know what is happening than in one's constituency office.

Returning to recruitment, that falls under the strategic workforce advisory group. There are 16 recommendations and we are putting them all in train. I will touch briefly on one of the challenges. We spoke about paying the living wage to staff in private organisations. For those who provide home care in the HSE, the rate is approximately €16 per hour and they also receive mileage but we are still struggling to recruit, even in the HSE. Many people moved away from providing home care during Covid. They may have children with underlying needs or vulnerable parents, for instance, and they decided to change the way they earned a living. We are trying to encourage people to return to providing home care and to make it a viable career opportunity. We want people to be able to transition so that they come in with a level 5 qualification but can scale up. I know one person who started as a home care worker and is now a nurse in University Hospital Waterford. She transitioned right through. That is what we are trying to achieve.

On the Deputy's point about a lady living on the county border, a common sense approach should be applied. The whole premise of Sláintecare is to provide the right care at the right time as close to home as possible. There should be a little bit of flexibility at times.

I will ask Mr. Brunell to clarify the timeline for the assisted decision-making legislation. I know a question was asked and we did not get to it.