Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Health Needs of Persons with Dementia and the Services Available: Discussion

Mr. John Dunne:

The costs depend on the number of hours and the level of dependency. I listed another issue. There is a complete reluctance to differentiate between the level of need and dependency a care worker can encounter. Everybody is paid the same, although clearly we could see scope to focus on perhaps three or four levels of need, and to pay people who are qualified to provide the different levels of need differently. That would give you an internal career structure for home care workers. All of that would be a long-term strategy. It would take ten years to put that in place and roll it out. It is not something that could be done-----