James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for her reply but we are spending more than €300 million a year on home care and the report by the National Economic Social Forum has uncovered major flaws in this sector which is unregulated. It found that care workers could be sent into homes of vulnerable people with no background Garda checks, many carers were untrained despite being required to look after people with complex physical and medical needs and some private companies admitted they had never been inspected by the HSE to find out if they were meeting the terms.

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