John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I recognise that the Minister of State does not have an infinite budget and has to work within constraints. In that regard we need to consider how things are done. For somebody who on a delayed discharge from hospital, there is an opportunity cost. When I asked a parliamentary question and got a response from the HSE, I was told that the number of direct employees of the HSE providing home services is reducing. The dependency on agencies to provide this type of service is increasing. Does the Minister of State believe that is the best value for money rather than having direct employees? Is there scope to examine that and increase capacity?

Something peculiar has been going on in my area, which falls under community healthcare organisation, CHO 7, that needs to be addressed. In March 2018, there were 724 people waiting for home support services, but by August that figure had gone up by over 50% to more than 1,100 people. That is out of kilter with all of the other figures. I do not expect the Minister of State to have the response here but I would like him to consider it directly. In terms of cost saving, will an analysis be done between using agency staff with a diminishing number of HSE direct employees, which had been the previous model? Would that be a way to provide additional hours?

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