Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms McGirr. I do not know who is responsible with regard to the home care support services but I am very concerned about the volume of calls I am getting whereby those in receipt of the care and their home carers are being informed they are no longer allowed to feed those they are supporting. While this has been sent out in the form of an email with the guidelines set down in a HSE document, the document pertains to 65-year-olds. I have the case of a mother who cares for two people, one of whom is a very seriously disabled and intellectually challenged individual as well as another son who has cerebral palsy and she cannot operate in an environment whereby the home care support worker does not feed her 22-year-old son, as an assistance to her. The reason I have been given is that when the client starts to choke that is something the home care support worker cannot cope with. Surely we are not sending in people who are not trained in this regard. Will Mr. Gloster look into that? I am not sure if this has been sanctioned at local level, constituency level or CHO 5 level but I certainly want a categoric answer because I know there are people who are seriously struggling with regard to this. I do not know if Mr. Gloster can answer this question now.