Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputies have acknowledged, funding for home help has increased and is increasing, year on year. However, I also acknowledge that the demand is increasing and that demand currently exceeds supply, both financially and, sometimes, when it comes to finding staff to provide the service, even when the finance is available.

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Our plan of action is to develop a fair deal-type scheme for home help. As one of the Deputies acknowledged, it is sometimes easier for people to get a nursing home place now than to get home help. That is an enormous anomaly and an inefficiency. The Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Jim Daly, is now advancing work on developing a fair deal-type scheme for home help. It will not be the fair deal scheme but it will give people a guarantee of home help within four or five weeks, as is the case with fair deal.

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