Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The reality is that if we had four times the amount of money provided for in the budget, we would still not have the personnel required to deliver services. The figure for this year is €52 million. That is why I have committed to developing a statutory homecare scheme to be unveiled in January 2020. Next year the pilot statutory homecare scheme will begin. The only way we will address the waiting lists for home help is by having the scheme underpinned by statute, proper conditions for those who deliver the service, a centralised database to effectively manage the delivery of the service and a regulatory aspect. The statutory scheme is under Sláintecare and is committed to in 2021. In the meantime we have added 1 million home help hours in an attempt to alleviate the issues in hand.

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