Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the efforts of the Minister of State, Deputy Daly, and his commitment, but this is the reality of it. All of us in the Chamber have heard testimony from people whose hours are being cut. There is a perception that people have to die or leave the health service for new people to get home care and home help services.

We are indeed conscious of the pressures on the health budget, but at what stage will someone in the HSE or in the Government actually do a little work and a little maths?

The more community care services and expenditure on in-home community services are cut, the more pressure is put on the acute hospital budget and the more people will be on waiting lists. In this article, which every Minister should read, a surgeon from Sligo claims that people are deliberately not given home help hours because it is cheaper to keep them in long-stay hospital beds and it ensures those beds are not available to people who might need expensive surgery or other expensive procedures. I am sure there is no basis to that but when money is not spent on community care and community services, there will be health overruns and expanded waiting lists, and people will suffer. There is no understanding at Government level of the suffering of carers or families, and that is why the Minister needs to read this piece.

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