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

On Tuesday night, I raised the shortage of home care workers. It is a skilled job, but one that does not require much formal qualification. It appears that the Government's system in this case finds it impossible to get enough people in the State to provide those services. People who are in critical situations are not getting care. On the other hand, I understand that the work permit system is so restrictive that it is not possible to bring in people where there are none available to do home care. Has the Minister of State had discussions with his colleagues on whether we should issue work permits to people to come here to provide these vital front-line services in the community? We saw in the Covid-19 pandemic how advantageous home care is in many cases as an alternative to nursing home care.

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