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

I thank all the Deputies who have contributed to this debate, in particular Deputy O'Dea for bringing forward this Bill and not simply allowing for this debate to take place, but for helping to move things on as well. On Deputy Calleary's reference that I have a script, we all have our notes and everything else, but these are my words, sentiments and intentions. This is very much my commitment to the House. We all want a scheme and system for home help that is fair, equitable and sustainable, but also affordable.

I would stress that it cannot be to the detriment or at the expense of the nursing home support scheme. I would agree that it is not perfect. I know that Deputies have made reference to the scheme needing to be changed. We had a review that was finalised last year that recommended a number of changes, many of which have been made or are in the process of being made, some of which require legislative change and some of which we have decided are not needed. That is ongoing and will be an ongoing process. It is a scheme that supports 26,000 people. It has a budget of €940 million. It is a very sensitive scheme. We have seen in recent times, when funding was taken away, that our waiting lists went from four weeks to up to 20 weeks. We know the effect that has on our emergency departments, our respites and on everything else and the knock-on effect that has. However, it is also a very highly-regulated scheme and I believe that is extremely important. While I support the spirit of this Bill and what it is proposing, I would have concerns that it will have a knock-on effect on a scheme that has taken seven years to put in place.

I wish to make it clear that we are not going to spend seven years on my watch putting together a home care scheme. This is something that is of vital importance. There certainly needs to be a timescale put on this. However, we need to make sure that the voices, not just of ourselves, but of our older people and of the representative groups that look after them are heard. That is why I am proposing that we have the next step, which is our consultative forum or engagement. There will, I hope, be a set time of six weeks to it. I envisage that many of the organisations have an idea at this stage what they want to say and what they will be proposing.

I agree with Deputy Kelly that it is not just about home help and putting forward a scheme for that. This needs to be an approach that we take across the board. Our national strategy on positive ageing in Ireland looks at not just the Department of Health. I suppose that is a difficulty that I have as a Minister of State at the Department of Health in that I do not have charge of anybody else's budget. The national positive ageing strategy takes a whole-of-Government approach to how we can support people to remain within their homes and communities for as long as possible by looking at transport, their environment and their financial situations. All this work needs to be done.

All that work is in conjunction with The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, TILDA, which took ten years to complete and takes on the views, expertise and knowledge of the older people in our society. It is also in conjunction with the Healthy and Positive Ageing Initiative, HaPAI, which again takes on board the views of our older people. This is what I am asking for. I again thank Deputy O'Dea for his co-operation. We must allow the older people and those who want to have a say in this have their say. We must progress this scheme and ensure it is successful, affordable and sustainable. I reiterate that I look forward to working with all Deputies in the House on progressing this scheme. I look forward to coming back in six months' time and hopefully having a significant amount of work done on this, having taking into account the views and voices of the older people and every person in this country.

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