Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

While some additional funding has been provided, there is no great evidence that it is making any kind of significant difference to the waiting lists because of the fact that there are so many demographic pressures. The 17 NGOs that came together this week deal with our health system on a daily basis and believe that home care must be made a priority for our health care system. We need to listen to their experiences. There is a need for Government to give a very clear commitment to re-orientate the health service to ensure that there is much more priority attached to home care supports and community supports in order to end this nonsense of people being unable to leave hospital because they do not have home care packages in place or they are waiting for ramps or different aids to be provided in their homes due to the long waiting lists in the local authorities. People are being denied the opportunity to live any kind of life with dignity because of this.

We know that providing home care is in the patient's interest. It achieves better health outcomes and makes absolute financial sense from the State's point of view. To remain in their homes, these people need to be able to be assured of the care that they require and they must have the necessary supports. Does the Tánaiste accept that it is now time to move to a situation in which there is a legal statutory entitlement to a home care package, just as there is with a statutory entitlement to a nursing home place? It makes sense to do that. Will the Tánaiste commit to moving in that direction?

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