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

This matter was dealt with earlier, but perhaps I can reply again or in more detail. Home help and home care packages are very valuable and very cost effective. The Deputies are correct in that respect. The packages allow people to return home from hospital, allow people to avoid going into hospital in the first place and allow people to live at home for much longer before they require long-term care. For that reason we have increased the budget dramatically over the past three years. It was €306 million in 2015 and it is €420 million this year. It will increase again next year, and this will be outlined in the HSE service plan. Once again we are adding more staff, more resources and more money but not getting the results we would like to see. This is further evidence that what we need is not just more money, more staff and more resources. We need system change also. This is why we propose to establish a statutory scheme for home care modelled on the fair deal scheme.

There is significant variation from county to county but I ask the Deputies to bear in mind that the Sláintecare report, to which all Members have committed, proposes that we have greater devolution and greater regionalisation of healthcare. We need to think that through also. People cannot demand the implementation of Sláintecare one minute and then say they are against regional autonomy and regional variation the next.

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