Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take on board the Deputy's points and I will bring her concerns to the attention of the Minister of State, Deputy Daly. I agree with her point regarding service provision on a Monday to Friday basis. I accept there is an obvious need to provide high quality and flexible services that not only best meet the needs of individual clients but also reduce the pressures elsewhere on the health system. There is no dispute there.

The social care services, including home care, day care and respite, are important components in enabling people to remain living at home and participating in their local communities. They also provide valuable support to carers. The Department and the HSE are continuing to improve existing services. Last year, a single funding stream for home support services brought together the funding for home help and standard home care packages. This provides significant benefits, including making the services easier to understand, streamlining the application and decision-making process and facilitating service users to move to changed levels of service as their assessed needs change without the need for an additional application process.

While the existing service is delivering crucial support across the country it is recognised that home support services need to be augmented to better meet the changing needs of our citizens. The Department is currently engaged in a detailed process to develop a new stand-alone statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home support services. As I mentioned earlier, this scheme is a key action under the Sláintecare implementation strategy, along with improving and developing supports in the community.

I will bring back the very important points raised by Deputy Smith to the Minister of State, Deputy Daly.

See this speech in context