Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Across the country, families have applied for the home help service for elderly relatives to keep them in their own homes. However, they are receiving letters stating that while the hours are approved, no funding is available to allocate extra resources. It seems ludicrous that the HSE is sending out letters approving home help hours, yet it does not have resources to back them up.

The home help system is a fantastic service which allows people to stay in their own homes, and it encourages them to do so. However, a cost-benefit analysis of that service does not seem to have been undertaken. Such an analysis would show how much could be saved by allocating a proper care package and home help service for patients. For example, it would save the costs involved in providing long-term care in nursing homes.

Last year, the HSE estimated that 2.2 million extra home help hours would be needed to accommodate the requirements arising from demographic changes in 2016. Unfortunately, there was nothing in either the HSE's plans or the budget to allocate funding for those home help hours. On the one hand, the HSE says it is necessary to have these hours in place to accommodate people in their own homes, while, on the other, the Government has not put funding in place for them. That is ludicrous.

The current programme for Government included increased funding for home help and home care packages. The last programme for Government, from 2011 to 2016, had a similar provision albeit with different wording, yet nothing has been done about it. Does the Minister accept that there is a crisis concerning home help and home care packages? We are getting reports that the HSE is dealing with this matter in different ways in various areas. The HSE says it must wait until somebody ceases looking for home help, or dies, before somebody else can be accommodated through that availability.

Is the Minister aware that it is taking six months to process applications for the carer's allowance? Is he also aware that it can take four or five months to process the simplest medical card application? Reports by advocacy services, including Age Action Ireland and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, state that there is a crisis out there. Is the Minister aware of this? What is on the Government's agenda to tackle this crisis?

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