Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will go back to the cross-departmental strategic workforce advisory group. I announced a call for submissions last Friday to further identify key issues in recruitment and retention and to inform the establishment of the group in early 2022, which is January as far as I am concerned as it needs to be done as soon as possible. We are all aware that terms and conditions vary from the private sector to the HSE. The HSE pays approximately €16 per hour plus travel. Some of the private operators pay the minimum wage and others pay more. There are challenges there and those operators are losing staff to the HSE.

We have had a lot of talks with the HSE and a few recommendations have gone to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to be examined. For example, we have some young people who avail of Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, grants who are allowed to work a certain amount of hours per month and we are trying to double that. We are also considering supporting people who receive a Department of Social Protection payment working a set amount of hours, as happens with the disability grant, so that they would not lose their supports and their medical cards would not be affected. We hope we can encourage more people back into the workforce that way.

I understand exactly where the Deputy is coming from. I get these queries in my constituency office as well; I would say there is no Deputy who does not get them. The problem we have is that a lot of carers work split shifts in the morning and the evening. Some 75% of all carers work part time. Everybody wants his or her loved one to be put to bed last but when carers are going out at 5 p.m., 6 p.m., 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. in the evening, they go to one house and move on to the next. That side of it is very difficult but all I can do is provide a commitment that I will continue to do everything in my power to try to get more home care workers into the system. As the Deputy knows, we are challenged in that we have more people working than we ever had in the history of the State. We are challenged with hospitality, home care and retail and it is quite difficult. All I can say is I am working at this every day.

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