Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I recognise the fact that there has been an increase in the budget, but there has also been an increase in the cost of providing the service and an increase in the number of people who need this service. We know all of that in respect of delayed discharges and the number of people who are on trolleys.

I am sure every Deputy in the House knows of multiple cases in their constituencies involving people in our acute hospitals who have been medically discharged and who should be in their homes but who are not at home because there are no home care supports for them.

Let us look at the numbers. The Taoiseach, coming from the medical profession, knows this. It costs the State €6,000 per week to have someone in an acute bed. It costs €160 if they can get the home care support package. This represents huge inefficiencies. We talk about inefficiencies and wastage in health. It makes no sense that patients who are medically discharged are not able to go back into their home environment because a blunt instrument from the HSE says it has run out of money and cannot provide home care supports for them. There is a need for both additional allocation and more money. We argued for that at the time but regardless, we now know the facts. We now know there are 6,000 people on waiting lists, that countless others have had their hours cut, that home help hours will not be provided until November and that the HSE is not going to recycle or reallocate home help hours when they come back into the system. We need more than a debate. The Taoiseach is in charge and his Minister is in charge. This is huge inefficiency and waste and it is causing serious distress to patients, their families and their carers. I ask the Taoiseach to act quickly on this.

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