Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have raised the chaos within the health service with the Taoiseach many times. This chaos has human consequences. This afternoon I want to put one name and one face to some of these consequences. Earlier I informed the Taoiseach's office that I wanted to raise with him the case of Olivia Harte. Olivia is 41 years of age and from County Leitrim. She is the mother of two young children, Colette and Ronan. She suffers from an aggressive form of Parkinson's disease. Olivia is currently in the intensive care unit of Cavan General Hospital. She has been there for the past seven months. Olivia has been on delayed discharge since January and remains in hospital six months after she was ready to go home. Olivia is on a ventilator most of the time and on oxygen to allow her to eat yoghurt or drink smoothies for short periods during the day. She is fully cognitive with a memory that would put most of us to shame. She can walk a short distance with assistance but she is physically very weak. This is Olivia's reality and it is lived out in the clinical surroundings of a medical facility while her two small children play at her bedside. I think everyone here, and beyond here, will feel the intense sorrow of that image.

The team at Cavan intensive care unit, for whom the family has nothing but praise, says that Olivia should be at home with 24-hour nursing care for her needs. However, Olivia cannot go home to her family because the HSE has refused to fund a home care package. Olivia applied for the intensive home care grant following her discharge, but this was turned down on 3 May last due to funding. To add to her sense of despair, she was informed on 14 June that her application for the older person's home care grant was also rejected. These rejections have taken their toll.

I raise this issue with the Taoiseach as a last resort for this family. Olivia celebrated her last birthday, her tenth wedding anniversary and both of her children's birthdays in Cavan intensive care unit. She wants to go home to her family. This is a human and instinctive need that everyone will understand. We all need to be in the company of our loved ones and to feel the comfort of familiar surroundings, particularly if we are sick or vulnerable. In its 2018 pre-budget submission published today, Family Carers Ireland states that for too long home care has been underfunded, inconsistent and inequitable. We are spending €11 million less on home care than we did in 2008. At the beginning of May 4,500 people were waiting for home care packages. Vulnerable citizens must be provided with long-term care in their homes when needed. Olivia is just one of those citizens. Will the Government give Olivia the dignity of being able to return home to her family by funding the home care package she so desperately needs?

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