Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take my hat off to the Minister of State for all that has been done. However, how am I meant to go back to a constituent who was awarded just 14 hours home help weekly?

The hours were meant to be divided between morning and evening but the hours are only being given in the morning and the wife of the person being cared for has to put her husband to bed. However, because of the condition he is in, this requires two people. She was told that the latest they could come was 6.30 p.m. It is not a viable option to put somebody to bed at 6.30 p.m. because if that is done, he or she will be up very early the following morning and we will have the same problem in reverse.

I acknowledge all the statistics and the work the Minister of State is doing but that is no good to the person facing the individual dilemma. Funding is being provided but not funding in the normal sense. I accept that there is extra funding and that it is now much quicker to get the hours granted. We used to have the problem of getting the hours granted and now we have the problem of getting the carers. There is a problem this society has to look at. I recall the late Frank Prendergast, who was a Labour Deputy in this House and a trade unionist, talking to me time and again about how over the years the gap in how we pay people was growing. These are front-line workers. It is becoming more obvious across society that critical services are not being provided because we refuse to restructure our society to properly reward those providing the same services. Then we wonder why we cannot provide the services.

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