Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this very important matter of the shortfall in funding to meet the demand of the Cúram home care grant in County Kerry and the associated waiting list created as a result of the funding deficit.

The home care grant, or Cúram grant, was introduced last October on a pilot basis in the HSE, southern area, to help older people and their families or carers meet the cost of care for their relatives in the home. It is available to people on low income who are struggling to pay to provide care for a sick or disabled person at home. However, the funding allocated is completely insufficient to meet demand. Some 67 people in County Kerry have been awarded the home care grant this year but only 23 received payment. The remaining 44 people who have been awarded the home care grant are not being paid because the HSE, southern area, does not have the money to pay them.

What would be required to pay the grant to the 44 people on the waiting list is the tiny sum of €6,664 per week. That is a small sum of money, which if paid to the qualifying applicants, would have enormous benefits. Many of the Government's spin-doctors and managers probably earn €6,664 just to get out of bed in the morning. The Taoiseach probably spends that much every day on his make-up. However, the Department of Health and Children is denying 44 people in County Kerry in need of additional care in the home the tiny sum of money to meet the cost.

What is more reprehensible is that people are getting a letter from the HSE, southern area, telling them that they have been approved for the grant and how much they have been awarded. However, in the next paragraph, they are told the HSE cannot afford to pay the grant. It is a terrible insult to people to tell them they qualify for the grant and to how much they are entitled but in the next breath tell them they cannot be paid.

One of these letters from my constituents reads as follows:

Re: Application for Cúram Home Care Grant

Dear Mr.

I refer to an application for Cúram Home Care Grant which you submitted to this office. You have been assessed as Maximum Dependency and have been approved for a grant of [so many euro per week]

I wish to inform you that the allocated funding for this scheme is now fully committed and no additional payments can be made at this time. Accordingly you have now been placed on a Waiting List for consideration for the payment of this grant on a future date. You will be informed in writing when this Section is in a position to offer payment . . .

The individual who got this letter is over 75 years of age and looks after his wife who is bedridden following a stroke. They cannot wait.

Why was this grant introduced on a pilot basis? If a Department, county council or other body does not have money, it writes to the applicant to say that due to funding constraints, it cannot process the application. However, the HSE, southern area, is writing to people telling them they are "maximum dependency" and are entitled to something but that they cannot get it. The individual about whom I spoke cannot wait. He is over 75 years of age, his wife is confined to bed, an invalid, and he is the only one who can look after her. There are 44 people like him on the waiting list in my county alone. I know the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, is a decent individual. Is there any possibility he could provide the funding so that this man is not forced to put his wife into care, which he does not want to do?

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