Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I know it will be a big ship to steer. Mr. Gloster is the third HSE CEO we have had appearing before the committee in the past year, with the exit of Paul Reid, who appeared before the committee on a number of occasions. The gap was filled by Mr. Gloster's colleague, Mr. Mulvany, at the most recent meeting we had with the HSE. Mr. Gloster's statement is quite long in the context of his speaking time of five minutes. Given that we have read it, he might summarise some of it.

Before he starts, I wish to ask about an immediate issue with regard to home care. I do not want to go into this issue in any great depth because I believe the HSE is in negotiations on it at the moment. There are approximately 40,000 recipients of private home care from private providers funded through the HSE. That is hanging in the balance at the moment. Almost 7,000 clients have been granted home care hours but have not been received that care because of the lack of providers. There is a challenge there. I understand the challenges in respect of the workforce, and so forth. The current arrangement, which was set in 2018, has expired. There is the issue of the living wage for the workers. Another issue is that the providers say they are not receiving enough money. This issue has been raised with me on a number of occasions in the past week, as I am sure it has with other colleagues also. In that regard, is Mr. Gloster confident that this can be brought to a conclusion in the next week or fortnight?