Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response but questions have to be asked. Was the initial budget for the home care package for the greater Kildare area sufficient to start with? Why is there such a disparity between our area and other areas of similar population, given waiting lists are greater in our area? I accept additional funding was given in the spring of this year as a result of Storm Emma, which affected many parts of the country, although Kildare appears to have been disproportionately affected. However, that additional money did not provide any extra home care packages for the Naas hospital area because it all went to Tallaght and St. James's hospitals. I suspect that not much money went into the community either.

That is a challenge for us and we have to learn from it. I acknowledge the role management play in Naas General Hospital, although I suspect managers were nearly punished in the spring for not having many delayed discharges and for managing as well as they possibly could. I deal with some great people who are managers in the HSE and the Department of Health. While that is great on an individual basis, the system has to be looked at and we have to learn from this situation. First, we have to ensure money goes in and that we clear the backlog of the very significant number of Kildare people who do not have access to home care packages but who need them. Then, we need to understand why this happened and ensure it does not happen again. I will keep asking these questions until I get answers because this is too serious and there are too many people affected by it.

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