Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not need to go to Dublin to understand the challenges in the provision of home care. I am a practising politician. It is one of the beauties of our democracy that Ministers and Ministers of State also have constituencies to run. I meet people every week in my village who cannot access home care and who need it. I am well aware of the challenges. That is why we have decided the current scheme is not fit for purpose because it will never meet the expectation. If we are spending €408 million on home help hours, we all agree in the House that it does not go far enough and does not meet the demand. We need to radically change how we do what we do. That is why we launched the consultation in July. It was completed in October. The 2,600 responses are now being reviewed and a breakdown of them will be on my desk in the next two to three weeks. We need to build a scheme that mirrors the fair deal scheme where everybody is entitled to home help in their own home by law. We need to do that to ensure there is proper funding for the staff and resourcing of it. We intend to do it but it will take time.

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