Mr. Ed Crotty:

I run a home care company in the Dún Laoghaire and Dundrum areas of Dublin South. To answer the Deputy's questions, the labour shortage is the biggest problem we face. We are at full employment. We are paying more per hour than we were a few years ago but it is becoming more difficult to recruit carers as they have a choice of other employment. The number of hours per client is reducing over time. Where someone might have got two or three hours a day from the HSE, they might get an hourly visit now or maybe half an hour, as someone said earlier, later in the day. That is less attractive work for carers, regardless of the hourly rate. The hourly rate is not as important as the conditions of employment. Mr. Musgrave spoke about professionalisation of the industry and said we need to do all those things, and get more carers into the system.