Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Irish Timesreports that the HSE has proposed cuts to home care packages. Correspondence between the Department of Health and the HSE outlines savings of the order of €500 million in 2019. The Minister insists that any savings will not impact front-line services but Members should mark my words that a €500 million cut in health will definitely affect them. Ireland has an ageing population and the old-age dependency ratio is increasing, in particular in rural Ireland. That is leading in turn to a greater demand for home help hours. How can we expect to meet the future demand for home help hours when we cannot meet the current demand? The demand for home help hours is projected to increase by between 38% and 54% by 2030. The Government must look therefore at providing better home care arrangements as a matter for urgency rather than to wait until the crisis worsens further. Over 6,000 people were on the national waiting list for a home help service at the end of April 2019. We need to see more staff employed to deal with the demand for home help workers to process applications more quickly. The weekly cost of a hospital bed is just under €6,000 while the weekly cost of a nursing home bed is just over €1,000. However, the average weekly cost of a home care support service is approximately only €165. It is a no-brainer that supporting home care services is a much better option for the Government. Certainly, it would be good for the Government's pocket, which is one of the only things it cares about. More importantly, home care services are valuable in the support they provide to enable older people to remain in their homes and to stay connected to their communities. One group escaping any criticism here is the unions which are supposed to be supporting home help workers. I have spoken to these great home help workers across west Cork over the past two or three years and particularly in recent months. They pay their union fees but get little or no support. It is time for the home help unions to wake up and start representing their workers properly.

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