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

In her post-budget speech, the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, made a vague claim that there is a commitment on the part of the Government to restore home help hours and home care packages. Questioned by me at a recent meeting of the Committee on Health, the Minister indicated he intended to restore funding in 2013 to the 2012 level. My core objective is to establish whether the hours that have been cut from people across the board will be restored. This critical question has not been answered. When the Minister indicates funding levels will be restored to the 2012 level, does he have in mind the position that applied at the end of 2011, the position that applied after the loss of 500,000 home help hours in January 2012 or the position that applied after a further reduction of 450,000 hours was introduced on the back of the €130 million in cuts announced at the end of August 2012? The overwhelming majority of those affected by these measures want to know what will be their personal circumstances.

I have cited previously the case of a 94 year old man in my constituency whose 11 home help hours were cut to five hours. In another case, an 82 year old woman in Cork who is acutely ill with clots on her lungs and requires oxygen on a 24 hour basis has had her four weekly home help visits of one hour cut by 15 minutes per day. Her night visits have been removed entirely. In Galway, a mother trying to provide full-time care for her severely disabled six year old son has been robbed of five hours of home help care per week. These are only three cases. The issue here is not only the level of resourcing but also whether the hours that have been removed from deserving people will be restored. Will the Minister provide a categorical assurance that they will be restored as early as possible in the new year?

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