Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

Stopping the home help service for the next five months is genuinely shocking and it proves again, if proof were needed, that the Government is out of touch with the real world. A total of 6,310 people are waiting for a home help service and what do we do? We stop the service for five months. It is unbelievable. One would wonder if this is a Third World country. Of course, we are far from it; we are the eighth richest country in the world.

As everybody knows the best place for elderly people is in their own home. It is best from their own point of view, from a social point of view and from a medical-treatment point of view. Home is the place where old people should be. The home help service is a value for money service. Stopping the service is a false economy and will put more pressure on acute hospital and nursing home beds. As Deputy Shortall said, it will cost an enormous amount to keep elderly people in general hospital beds - €7,000 per bed or €1,200 in a nursing home - whereas the average home help service will cost at most €150 or €160 a week. This is madness. I am shocked that the Minister of State would accept this from the HSE. I ask him to get this turned around quickly because this is pure and utter madness.

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