Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I add my voice to the others in debating this extremely important motion. The current method of allocation of home support hours is far from satisfactory. Access to healthcare should never be based on a postcode; it should be open and transparent and the system applied consistently throughout the country. Thankfully, home supports provided in my region are good. I acknowledge the administrative support staff who run the scheme and also those on the front line who provide care for individuals on a daily basis to allow them to stay in their homes where they want to be. However, as my colleagues have done, I wish to raise some hardship cases.

In one case an adult child is being cared for by two parents who are almost 80 years of age. They have provided care for their adult son for more than four decades. He has Down's syndrome and now Alzheimer's disease. They urgently want him to move into long-term care because they can no longer physically provide care. However, there is no place available for him. As a compromise, they have been told that they have been approved to receive 14 hours of home help. However, there is a waiting list. The business case has been made and the HSE is waiting for recycled hours to come back on-stream. That is not good enough in this day and age and must stop. That is the reason my colleague Deputy O'Dea produced a Bill to place the provision of home care services on a statutory basis, just like the fair deal scheme. It would ensure people would have access to home care services. It would make good economic sense and, far more important, good social sense. If anything is to come from this motion, I encourage the Minister of State to accelerate the passage of the Bill to give people confidence that they will be looked after in their homes in their old age.

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