Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Again, I compliment the Minister of State for fighting hard in the budget to get €150 million for the home care packages. We are all living for longer now. Please God, we are all for living longer. Going forward, many families will want to keep their mother or father in their home. It is important they have that choice. We can see that the issue is recruitment. That is the biggest issue. We have the funding, yet we do not seem to have the staff. What does that mean in that case? Are we looking at putting it on a statutory basis? It is in the programme for Government that there will be a timeframe for this to become a statutory scheme. Maybe the Minister of State can explain that. One of the biggest issue we as Members face is where families ring us all the time looking for home care packages and they just cannot get them. One of the biggest issues that probably will face any Minister going forward is to try to get staff to make sure families who want to keep their parents at home will be able to do so.

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