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

At the outset, I thank all Deputies who participated in this debate last night and tonight. In particular, I thank those who will then proceed to support the motion in the Sinn Féin Deputies' names. I thank those people from the home help sector who attended the debate last night and again tonight, especially those home help providers who gave personal testimony as front line service providers to Deputies yesterday in the AV Room.

I urge all Deputies to reject the amendment in the name of the Minister for Health. It is an insulting amendment. There is no other way to describe it.

There is not even within it an acknowledgement of the cuts that have taken place under the Minister's watch or the cuts to home help hours and home care packages over which he is now presiding. What we have instead is weasel words. Nothing else comes to mind when we examine what the Minister says. His amendment states, "anyone who has been assessed as needing a service will have that service provided". These are weasel words because they allow the Minister and HSE to weasel out of providing a service, even at the basic level of need, and to impose cuts. While an assessed person may retain the service, one must ask at what level. There is evidence to support my argument in many cases and we know it will unfold over time that home help hours will be greatly reduced, to the point where a person will merely have a 15 minute visit by a home help, as instanced during the course of this debate. This is absolutely outrageous. The Minister's words in this regard are also weasel words because they will continue to deny people with a genuine need from gaining access to supports.

We have pointed out that by cutting back the home help hours and home care packages, the State will incur a greater cost because people will be forced out of the home environment into residential care. No head-waving by the Minister will change the unmistakable fact that we are facing even more serious scenarios as a consequence of these cuts because people will find themselves alone. Older people will die alone because the service will not be available to them. One should not forget the backdrop to this, namely, the work of Willie Birmingham in the 1970s and 1980s. We are returning to the grave conditions of those years because many older members of the population, whose average age is increasing, will not be able to gain access to the essential home help service that would give them comfort and dignity and the certainty of ending their days where they want to be. I ask every Member of the House to support the motion in the name of the Sinn Féin Deputies and to reject the outrageous amendment tabled by the Minister for Health.

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