Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)

I am disappointed the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health and Children, who was in the Chamber for the Order of Business, is not present to take this debate. It is obvious she does not want to answer any questions in the Dáil on the health service because she is ashamed of it. The Minister of State claimed elderly people want to remain in their own homes as long as possible. All Members agree that the majority of residents in public or private nursing homes should be still living at home. On 8 December 2005, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children stated in a press release:

28% of nursing home residents have a low to moderate dependency and many of these residents might very well have continued to live at home if the right supports had been available to them at the appropriate time.

I call on her to provide the proper resources for elderly people to live in their own homes. Despite the praise from the Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children for the Health Service Executive, HSE, at both local and national level, it has proved it does not have the will to tackle the problem of better home care help.

To illustrate this, I will give an example of a case in the Galway West constituency. In the Connemara area a woman suffering from Alzheimer's disease was being cared for in her own home by her son. Up to August 2005, she had eight hours' home help care, three hours with the registered general nurse and some hours from the Alzheimer Society Ireland. Last September, owing to the retirement of the home help, the aged woman lost the benefit of the eight hours home help for August and September. Four hours were restored in October but ever since, the woman cannot get back the lost four hours.

In early December 2005, I contacted the personnel section in the Health Service Executive western area to inform it of a woman in the area who would take up the remaining four hours home help. I was informed no budget was in place to recruit anyone. I wrote for confirmation and received a reply on 16 December 2005. It stated there was an embargo on the recruitment of staff. It continued: "There are some people in the area who would work evenings, but we have an embargo on recruitment at present as we have our full complement of whole-time staff".

I then tabled a parliamentary question on 25 January 2006 on the matter. The reply stated there was no embargo on the recruitment of staff and €30 million had been allocated to the HSE western area budget which would provide 1.6 million extra hours. When I rang the HSE western area, it knew nothing of the extra €30 million or extra home help hours.

To ensure I received the right reply the next time, I tabled three parliamentary questions on 8 February 2006. One reply stated: "Public sector pay and employment policies do not prevent the Health Service Executive from appointing home helps or staff at any other grade". It also stated 1.75 million extra home help hours would be provided.

On Wednesday 15 February I raised the matter on the Adjournment. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Seán Power, informed me:

There is no embargo on the recruitment of staff in the health service ... Accordingly, public sector pay and employment policies do not prevent the executive from appointing home helps or any other grades to provide health and social services to the public.

I sent this response to the HSE western area which returned it to me highlighting a line on public sector pay.

Since I was making no progress, I rang the national offices of the HSE. I could not get through to Professor Drumm but instead got his personal assistant. I left my telephone number but never received a return call. I was then informed to contact Ms Mo Flynn, the national care group manager of service for older people. However, I could not contact her and she did not return my call. I wrote to Ms Flynn outlining the case on 3 February and received an acknowledgement but no subsequent reply to my letter. l rang her office three weeks ago and was informed that a reply was being drafted but I did not receive it. I wrote again but have still not received any reply. In the meantime, this 88-year-old woman in Connemara, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, cannot get the four hours' home help that would benefit her son who is struggling to mind his mother in her own home to keep her out of institutional care. The Minister is preaching all the time that such people would like to live in their own communities but no help is being given to them. In his reply, the Minister of State will no doubt read out details of all the extra money provided for various services. He should tell the Health Service Executive that money is available, however, because the HSE tells me that it has heard nothing about it.

In February, I wrote to the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children but received a reply stating that my letter had been forwarded to the chief executive of the HSE. She might as well have thrown my letter in the bin for all I have heard about it since then. I wrote to the Tánaiste again on 6 March and received a two-line acknowledgment on 13 March but no subsequent reply. Last Friday, I spoke to a person in the Health Service Executive, western area, and pointed out the written reply concerning the €30 million and the 1.75 million extra hours. I was informed that the executive had not received any word of this. The idea of announcing financial allocations in the Budget Statement and throwing money at the problem is a complete and utter sham as far as the public are concerned.

In December and again last week, I supplied the name of a person in the area to the health executive. I was informed that if the person's son got someone who could do the extra four hours' home help, he or she could be employed. I have discovered today, however, that the request must go through somebody else because the health executive cannot deal with it. The situation is a complete and utter sham and the Minister of State is paying lip service to the problem. He should ask the advice of those who are seeking the disabled person's grant and the care of the elderly grant in order to be cared for at home for the rest of their lives.

I dealt with a case in Galway concerning a disabled brother and sister who applied for a downstairs bathroom. Their request took three years to deal with and both of them were in the graveyard at Bohermore before the grant was sanctioned. The way the Government is acting is scandalous. I do not fault the Minister of State because he is only reading out the script that was supplied to him. The Minister should be here to answer the debate. The purpose of the debate was to elicit answers from the Minister to our queries arising from the problems with which we have to deal. The message is not getting through to the Government that pretending to throw money at the problem is certainly not solving it.

See this speech in context