Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle. The maths do not add up when it comes to the HSE home help cuts. Government funding in the budget and the HSE's service plan commit to 50,000 home help hours every day in 2019. However, the decision by the HSE to suspend the allocation of home help hours to older people and their carers for the next five months contradicts this and the all-party Sláintecare report on the reform of the health service.

Government policy and Dáil Éireann are at complete variance with the policy actions taken by the HSE. The Taoiseach advised today that the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, will not meet the HSE managers until next week. The HSE is completely unaccountable and makes up its own policy. This has to stop and the first step is to reverse these cuts immediately. The HSE suggests it will be able to pay home help workers for their time travelling between the homes of older people and still deliver the 50,000 home help hours committed to in its service plan from within the existing allocated budget. This just does not add up.

While the home help budget has increased by 50% since the Government was formed, and rightly so, we have not seen a 50% increase in home help hours. Where has this money gone? According to the Taoiseach, it is not as a result of an increase in the older population or an increase in wages to home help workers. What has happened to the money? Clearly, the maths do not add up and older people are suffering as a result.

The decision by the HSE will trap carers in their homes and leave them unable to access a break from the 24-7 care they provide. It will result in families having no choice but to admit older people to long-term nursing home care.

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