Mr. Michael Harty:

I thank the Chairman and members for the invitation. Home and Community Care Ireland, HCCI, is the representative body of private home care providers throughout the country. It employs roughly 6,000 staff and cares for approximately 8,500 clients. It contributes approximately €36 million to the economy each year.

In putting together our budget submission we have been very cognisant of our current economic difficulties and the imperative to ensure our limited resources are put to best use; the historical overspend in the health budget, in particular, which has led in the past to cuts to front-line services rather than structural reform; and an increasingly ageing demographic profile which means any issues or difficulties we now face will only be magnified in the years to come.

Our budget recommendations call on the Government to make better use of existing resources, which would incur no extra cost to the Exchequer, would follow the Government’s stated policy of money following the patient and would enable older people to remain at home for as long as possible. We make five principal proposals and I will focus on two recommendations in particular, which are immediately achievable and could deliver immediate savings to the Government in 2014.

In line with the Minister’s often stated aim of getting the money to follow the patient, we question the wisdom of ring-fencing €1 billion of the total €1.4 billion budget for older people for residential care through the fair deal scheme. We call on the Government to amalgamate the budgets to allocate funding in accordance with patient need and wishes, which could potentially save approximately €69 million in 2014. In an effort to ensure we provide the best quality care to the maximum number of older people we call on the Government to ensure all home care provision which falls outside that provided directly by the HSE is allocated or commissioned in an open and transparent manner, with quality being the key basis for approval. This would entail stopping the use of section 39 funding for home care provision and instead redirecting those funds to the home care package scheme where we feel there is more accountability and transparency. Several HSE reports have shown the gross inefficiencies of using section 39 funding for home care provision and redirection could potentially save a further €48 million in 2014 alone. I look forward to answering any questions in the question and answer session to follow.