Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

An issue that crops up repeatedly is whether cutting home help services would save money. Every time a person ends up in an acute hospital instead of at home, it costs multiples of what the home help service would cost. We are getting approximately 11 million hours for slightly more than €200 million. In no other section of the budget is it possible to point to that kind of value for money. The philosophy behind this seems to be changing and I am concerned that we are moving towards a privatised system for many people. Let us consider the taxation benefit. A person on the 20% tax rate spending €100 per week looking after an elderly person at home may claim back €833. However, a person on the 41% tax rate may claim back almost double that - €1,453. Yet, somebody outside the tax net struggling to pay will get nothing back. That exposes something that is very wrong about the priorities.

Government subsidies are paid to private companies including, for example, Comfort Keepers Home Care. In 2007 and 2008, approximately €1 million was paid. That amount was €3.75 million in 2011, which indicates a change in the way we are handling this system and this budget. We used to get extraordinarily good value. Last week I had an opportunity to speak on this in another forum. I referred to an elderly gentleman who had fallen and the home help person found him behind the door two days later. He is still in hospital and one must question the sense in this.

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