Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I and many other Deputies have raised with the Tánaiste the issue of home help hours. The Tánaiste and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, keep telling us there is extra money going into the service, yet the number of people on waiting lists are increasing. There are 7,300 people on national waiting lists for home help hours and it is causing massive delays in our health service. The Minister of State at the Department of Health with special responsibility for mental health and older people, Deputy Jim Daly, fessed up about this on Tuesday when he said he was ashamed and embarrassed any time he met somebody on the street. Does the Tánaiste share that sense of shame and embarrassment about those waiting lists? Will the Government get to the bottom of these delays and deal with them once and for all?

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