Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

How could the Government find €10 million to reverse the reduction in personal assistant hours when it could not identify it the week before? It just beggars belief.

I want to quote a statement made on the floor of the House last week:

Do we cut home help services or impose a cap on consultants' pay? Our priority must be to protect front-line services. We cannot cut our way out of problems.

Does the Minister agree with those words? The Member who said them was the Minister's then ministerial colleague with responsibility for primary care, Deputy Shortall. I agree with her absolutely. I have no doubt that what she said last week and what the Minister has failed to do since is a significant part of the reason she is no longer his colleague at the Department of Health.

It must be recognised that cuts cannot be contemplated in areas in which the need is already much greater than current resourcing provides for. To target these areas now is absolutely scandalous. Will the Minister seize the opportunity this evening, against all that has happened since, to give some relief to those who are in great distress at the prospect of cuts to their current allocation of home help hours and home care packages?

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