Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the home help service, which has played a vital role since it was developed many years ago in ensuring that people who need care are kept in their own homes and provided support. We have a crisis. Many families have contacted Members in recent weeks. There has clearly been a change in policy because there has been a slowdown in the home help services operated by the HSE. I will bring one particular case to the attention of the Minister of State and the HSE. It is one I have raised at every forum available to me and in every contact I have had with the HSE recently.

Home help hours have been approved since the end of April for this person, whose spouse is at home. This involves an elderly relative looking after a patient with Alzheimer's disease. As late as last Friday, senior officials had the same line as quoted by Deputy Butler regarding hours becoming available. This is a critical case for the family and the two elderly people involved. We look at the contribution these people have made to society and then we consider whether we can give half an hour or three quarters of an hour a day to support them through Alzheimer's disease or the illness, condition or disability involved. It behoves the Minister of State, the HSE and everybody else to take account of the crisis that exists and to consider what needs to be done because there are patients like this throughout the country. If it is the case that no new hours will be introduced until November, and it is now the end of June, we will have a serious crisis and it will compound all of the issues in the health service in the context of step-down facilities, etc.

I implore the Minister of State to reflect on what the HSE is doing with regard to home help and home support and ensure that there is a continuation of the service. I also ask him to ensure that the people who are really in need of care at this point are looked on as priorities in order that we might try to find a solution for them immediately.

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