Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for the constructive approach. I sat where he was sitting for four years and I raised this issue on a weekly basis. You can attest to that, a Cheann Comhairle.

In May 2020, there were 7,250 people waiting for financing of a home care package and, currently, there are 1,440 waiting. That shows we have improved by 90%, which is fantastic. The challenge we face now is to try to get more home care workers into position. We are going to look at alternatives. For example, there might be parents who do not work and whose children are in school, and we are going to try to get a flexible approach so that they might be able to deliver perhaps three hours a day. We are looking at that.

There is also another option that is taken up by very few families. It is in place since 2018, but it has not been spoken about very much. People can receive funding from the HSE to provide home care support and they can hire the providers themselves, but that has never really taken off. There is an option for people to receive the funding allocation it would cost the HSE to provide the package and for them to hire the staff themselves.

We are also looking at weekends. For most people, home care is not an issue from Monday to Friday, but Saturdays and Sundays are an issue. We are looking at providing financial support to people at the weekend and they might be able to get help in themselves. We are looking at all the options. For once, I have the budget, but I am challenged currently with not being able to get the staff. There are staffing issues across a lot of sectors of society.

Permits are a bit difficult because 75% of home care workers are part time and if we bring in somebody from a non-EEA country we must pay the minimum wage. The rate we have to be able to pay is €27,000. Given that most home care workers are part-time workers, most of them do not work for the required number of hours.

I say to the Deputy and the Ceann Comhairle, as I know he is very interested in the sector and he often raises it with me, that we are trying to do everything we can. Coming into the winter we need to get as many home care workers as possible, and we will do our utmost to do that.

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