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

I give best wishes to everybody inside and outside the House over the festive season. There is a cohort of families who will find it difficult over the Christmas season. Five weeks ago in Leaders' Questions to the Taoiseach I raised the inability to recruit and retain staff in the crucial area of home care services. Despite the increased allocation of hours in the budget by the Government, people depending on home care services received cuts in their approved home care package due to the incapacity of private home care companies to provide these packages. Then we saw the HIQA report of 5,000 patents waiting to get the home care packages because of lack of capacity.

The Ministers have gone outside the box with Student Universal Support Ireland and social welfare for people to come into this field, but they are bringing them into the same bad pay and conditions in the private health companies that have caused people to leave. Is the policy of the Government to recruit carers directly to the HSE to provide crucial services for people who are at a loss?

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