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:

For a number of years, the Germans, for example, as their solution, shipped people in from the likes of Vietnam. South-east Asia was certainly one of the places. They provided them with three years' training in care in the home. They used them, while they were being trained, to deliver that care, and then they sent them back to Vietnam. The argument was that it was a win-win. The fact of the matter is that with their demographic profile, they could not do it internally themselves. We are into the whole agenda around - dare I say it - migration, where these workers are going to come from and how we are going to find the people we need.