Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Kelleher for raising this question. To return to what Deputy Connolly said, we are not just talking about figures but people's parents, mothers, brothers and sisters. I am pleased to say that overall funding for services for older people has increased to €765 million in 2017, which is an increase of €82 million since the HSE's 2016 service plan. As Deputy Kelleher rightly pointed out, the 2016 service plan included €40 million in additional funding, €10 million of which is under the winter initiative and €30 million of which was allocated to home-help hours. This has focused on additional funding for home care in particular and is aimed at allowing people to continue to live in their own homes and at facilitating discharge of older people from acute hospitals.

Since the Government took office, it has significantly increased the funding available for home care. An additional €40 million, which included €10 million as part of the forthcoming winter initiative, already provided in 2016 represented an increase of over 13% in the total funding available and means that the number of home-care packages provided this year will increase from 15,450 to 15,800 and home-help hours from 10.4 million to 10.57 million.

The winter initiative will also provide another €1.4 million for home care this year, which will result in the provision of a further 650 packages by year's end. These will be targeted at ten specific hospitals to allow people to be discharged home quickly. During 2016, the number of home-care packages being provided will have increased by 1,000. As stated previously, we will not know the amount of home-care packages and home-help hours until we finalise the sign off of the service plan this year.

In 2017, €14.6 million of the winter initiative will be to fund home care. There will be another €3.8 million to maintain existing levels of service and €10 million for new developments. Details of the services to be provided with these funds will be set out in the coming weeks.

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