Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government states that the Government is the first in the history of the State that is committed to developing a universal single tier health service which guarantees access to medical care based on need and not income. It goes on to state that investment in the supply of more and better care for older people in the community and in residential settings will be a priority. There is nothing in that vision for health care with which we would disagree.

Health care and care for the elderly has become a nightmare for the people we represent. This should not be seen as a factional issue, it is one that affects people across the board. Nowhere is this more real than in the treatment of home helps and the people they serve. Home helps, home care providers and carers provide an essential service to those who want to live independently at home and in their community. The HSE home helps are the success story of home care for the elderly and community care. They are an efficient and reliable front line service, costing between €12 and €15 per hour while the private agencies cost between €20 and €23 per hour. The Minister has taken an axe in the name of cost cutting and balancing budgets and cut the number of HSE home helps to 9,380 and has continued, like his predecessors, to cut front line services. In the past five years 2 million hours have been cut. Some home helps have had their hours cut to single digits while some are expected to go from one house to another and spend just 15 or 30 minutes there. Those who had two hours home help get one hour, those who had one hour home help get half an hour while those who had half an hour home help get 15 minutes. The service has been cut to the bone.

I have spoken to many home help workers who have come to see me about it. Home helps are being forced to cut corners or work free, which they should not be expected to do and they work over and above the call of duty. In my constituency of Laois-Offaly, the reduction in the numbers employed as home helps and carers is startling. In the past 12 months, the HSE has lost 60 home help staff and reduced the number of hours for remaining staff while at the same time there has been a direct increase in private agency staff which, I understand, is more expensive. Having discussed the issue with elderly people I am informed that the service is not as good.

The Labour Party needs to address the issue. I am not trying to score political points but I am making the point that the Minister is privatising and outsourcing the service. This means home helps have fewer rights and worse conditions and the elderly are not getting as good a service while the taxpayers are not getting a bang for their buck. This completely contradicts the commitment in the programme for Government to finance community and long-term care which supports older people to stay in their homes. The Government is tripping itself up over broken promises. Some 95% of people over 65 years of age live independently in their own homes and the State must provide the small amount of services they need to continue living into old age with dignity.

The Minister of State with responsibility for older people, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, has cut back on the home help service. The reduced funding is making it impossible for people to stay in their own homes. Meanwhile the Government is threatening to close nursing homes, particularly those in Shean and Abbeyleix. On the one hand there is a threat to close nursing homes and some have already been closed.

On the other hand, this service is being cut back.

Some people who should be living at home with a small amount of assistance have not been getting it. They are then forced into nursing home care - in some cases the HSE is putting them into private nursing homes which needs subvention. The health plan as it operates in Laois and Offaly is in tatters and I am sure it is the same in the other 24 counties. I urge Deputies, particularly Labour Party and Independent Deputies to vote in favour of the motion. We should be judged on how we look after the most vulnerable in our society. The most vulnerable people in our society are older people who depend on us and depend on their home helps to do that bit of work for them in the morning, to get them out of bed, get them ready for the day and look after them. As this is how we will be judged, I am asking Deputies to vote in favour of our motion and to support home helps and support our elderly.

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