Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is also about travel expenses. I was speaking to people in the private sector who are providing home care. There are approximately 28 private companies providing home care. Their big problem is that they have additional costs. For instance, they have to rent premises for administration and they have insurance and public liability costs. The HSE does not have the same cost base as the private providers. They also have an issue whereby the funding they are getting does not allow them to pay travel costs for staff. That is a big issue. If they were able to pay travel costs, they believe they could recruit a lot more people.