Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

There are many issues I could raise, such as the national maternity hospital or redress for mother and baby homes, but I wish to raise the inability to recruit and retain staff across the public health service. It is now reaching a crisis point. This is particularly the case in the crucial area of home care services. Despite the increased allocation of hours by the Government, people dependent on the service are actually receiving cuts in their hours due to staff shortages.

I give the example of Kevin, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Kevin needs help getting into and out of bed and feeding himself. He had carer visits four times a day but, just over a week ago, he was given two days' notice that he would have no more visits due to lack of staff. In his own words, he felt that he was being left to die. The situation changed after he went public, and the hours were reinstated. That is an extreme example of what people are facing, but many people dependent on these hours are losing them due to staff shortages.

When you consider the pay and conditions for home care workers employed by agencies funded by the HSE, it is very easy to see why people are leaving or not taking up these jobs. The norm for agency staff is a minimum wage of €10 per hour with a zero hours contract, no sick pay or pension, and the constant stress of getting from one client to the next. They have to provide their own transport and do not get any allowance for doing so. A carer in Dublin, for example, might have two to three clients in an hour. If carers use their own car, they have the problems of traffic and parking fees. Many of them use buses. The reality of their travel costs means that they actually earn below the minimum wage. In rural areas, they are being forced to speed and take risks on country lanes.

The HSE pays these agencies €30 per hour per client. If a carer sees two to three clients in that hour, that is €60 to €90 for the agency and €10 for the carer. Why does the HSE not directly employ these workers? It used to do so until the decision nearly to privatise these services. It should directly employ these workers on a decent wage with a travel allowance, sick pay, a pension etc. These workers provide a crucial health service for which they need certain qualifications. They are not just being overlooked; they are being undervalued. They are being abused and treated like dirt and certainly not treated like the heroes they are. They were the ones on the front line who went door to door and client to client and lost money during the height of the pandemic because families were afraid they could bring the infection into their homes.

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