Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this important issue. I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, and hope he will have a favourable reply for me.

Will the Minister of State explain to me and the people of County Kerry the reason the number of home help hours in County Kerry has been reduced by more than 100,000 in the space of just two years? Figures the Labour Party recently obtained from the Department of Health and Children show that in 2002 there were 789,011 hours of home help provided to people in County Kerry. In 2004, that figure dropped to just 683,296, a drop of 105,715 hours in two years. Does the Minister of State realise the enormous value of 105,000 hours of home help to people in County Kerry? Home help is probably the most valuable social health service available to an elderly, infirm or housebound person who wants to remain at home with dignity but needs a little care and assistance, usually daily.

We have heard much from the Minister for Health and Children about her desire to see the elderly and the incapacitated cared for at home and kept out of long-stay institutions where possible. The Minister and the Government have emphasised the need for greater investment in home care to enable people to live at home with dignity and to free up long-stay institution places and hospital beds.

I have often spoken in this House about the lack of funding for the Cúram home care grant for people in County Kerry. Successful applicants are being denied the grant because funding has expired. The cases and figures I am putting on the record of the House give the lie to the Government commitment of investment in home-based care. How can the Government say it is investing in home care when it has cut by more than 100,000 the number of hours of home help provided in County Kerry over the past two years?

Let me explain to the Minister of State the reality locally of these kinds of cutbacks. I spoke to a constituent of mine recently whose home help told her that she could not stay and chat any more as she had only so many hours to do her chores for the woman concerned. She had to get in and out of the house as quickly as possible because of her set quota of home help hours. This elderly woman was also told by her home help that she would wash her clothes, but not those of her husband because he was not the person in receipt of home help. The home help sorted the man's from the woman's clothes. What kind of society is it where this happens? Is the Government willing to stand over that kind of a system?

One of the most important roles of the home help service is to provide a level of social interaction to the client who may often not see another human being from one end of the week to the other. Now it seems that thanks to the cutbacks, home helps are only in a position to do the basic household chores and are gone out the door shortly after they arrive. I have heard the Minister for Health and Children persistently deny that the Government is cutting back on home help and insist it is investing more money. It is true there may be more investment but it goes mainly towards increased wages for home helps, and rightly so. However, thousands of people are losing out on the hours of home help they receive because of cutbacks in the Department.

I appeal to the Minister to stop cutting back on what is arguably the best and most valuable social health service available to people who are living at home but not in a position to do some of their household chores. I ask her to give a commitment to the House that the hours lost, particularly in County Kerry, will be restored.

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