Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the minute of time that my friends in the Rural Independent Group have shared with me. I have two brief points to make. I acknowledge that the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is a good advocate for people and a good listener. I am sure he is taking in what is being said this evening.

It has been already pointed out that there are no waiting lists in several counties. There are nine people on the Longford-Westmeath list, 17 people on the north Tipperary-east Limerick list and 31 people on the Waterford list. There is no one on the north Cork waiting list. There are 147 people on the waiting list in Roscommon. People might say that is a low figure, but it is not low by comparison with other counties. Some counties with bigger populations have no waiting lists, or just a few people on the list. There are 307 people on the waiting list in Galway, which admittedly has a larger population. There are 454 people on the list in the Galway-Roscommon region, whereas other regions have no waiting lists. There has been a significant increase in the number of home care packages provided since they were introduced by Fianna Fáil in 2006. We really need them now.

My second point relates to weekend cover. This point has not been made. I know of many cases in which dinners are provided to old people during the week, but there is nobody providing meals on Saturdays and Sundays. We need to look at what is happening in such cases. We should try to get some cover at the weekend. Some people might have got the impression from this evening's debate that families do not do an awful lot. Many families do a lot but they need this home care very urgently.

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