Mr. Damian Ginley:

On the 84 whole-time equivalents reduction, our healthcare support assistants were formerly known as home helps. Many colleagues would recognise that name rather than the current title.

They provide an important role in our community and in our home. Their function is to try to support the acute settings by assuring that service can be delivered in the community, as opposed to holding up beds in the public service. In that context, it is concerning that we have evidence from across the country on deficits in HCSAs directly employed by the HSE. For example, we are short more than 100 whole-time equivalents in the south. In the midlands, we are short of between 50 and 100.

An announcement was made about an additional 4 million home care hours. The challenge for us is that our members are already working their full-time contracted hours. They are already making themselves available for overtime and additional hours, but because there are not enough staff to provide those services, the additional hours are allocated to the private sector, which then picks and chooses what cases it wishes to take. We are calling for increased investment in the HCSA grade to enable the HSE to directly deliver the service.