Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Sometimes in life there are many things that we take for granted. We are inclined to take for granted some of the basic tenets, such as the ability to feed ourselves, wash ourselves and be able to care for ourselves. As we get older, these basic rights can be taken away from us. It is incredibly painful when we see the independence and dignity of parents, relatives, friends and neighbours being taken from them. They absolutely need to have access to that extra dignity and independence that home help hours can give them. The restrictions that have been spoken about in terms of home help care are absolutely appalling and they will have many negative consequences for families, carers and the wider health services, including hospital services, for the want of being able to access beds and being able to bring people home. We absolutely have to have home help hours.

The Minister of State mentioned that assessments would be made based on clients' needs and resources available. It really scares me when I hear the phrase "resources available" being used. I would like to think that it would be based on clients' needs. While we obviously have to think of resources the clients' needs should absolutely come first. In Kildare, 326 people are on waiting lists. I am of the view that this is an underestimation. In Laois and Offaly, there are 369 people waiting but in Carlow and Kilkenny nobody is on a waiting list. In Cork or Kerry, nobody is on a waiting list. There is nobody on a waiting list in Dún Laoghaire. It seems to depend on where people reside and that is absolutely not good enough.

I want to follow on from what my colleague stated regarding the need to provide home help hours on Saturdays and Sundays.

Many people are virtually bed-bound on a Saturday and Sunday because they cannot get access to home help hours. I know people, as do many others here, who are given one hour of home help a week. What does that say about our level of commitment to older people?

See this speech in context