Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 17 November 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Disability Matters

Disability, Mental Health and Ageing: Engagement with Minister of State at the Department of Health

Photo of Mary ButlerMary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

No, through both. At the end of the day, a person who needs home care does not care who is providing that once the home carer comes in the door. Previously, it was a 50:50 split. There was 50% of home care provided by the HSE and 50% by private companies and voluntary groups such as the organisation I mentioned. I received additional funding of €150 million in my first budget to deliver extra home care hours. The HSE is recruiting but the problem we have in this regard is that many of the HSE carers are older. Despite bringing in more people, we also lost people naturally through retirement. As a result, we had to reach out to the private providers and, in fairness to them, they stepped up and they provided more hours. At the moment we have a 60:40 split but one of the recommendations is ----