Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If I may answer the question. Such a letter may issue in any month of any year because there are 6,000 people waiting for home help. Its being issued does not meant that there is an embargo or freeze on home help. It is continually the case that when people no longer need home help, it is coming back into the system. Some 800,000 additional hours were added to the system this year. However, letters such as that to which the Deputy refers will issue next month and the month after that. He mentioned an imaginary freeze that will be lifted in November, but those letters will still issue in November and December. They have issued every month since home help was introduced because the budget relating to it is finite and, as we all know, there are 6,000 people on the waiting list. It is probably the case that 6,000 of those letters have been issued to date. However, that has nothing to do with the so-called freeze which the Deputy is creating in his imagination but which does not exist in Cork, Kerry or anywhere else.

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