Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Despite all of the things the Taoiseach has announced, nothing has changed in the sector for carers in home care support. I have stood here many times, complaining of the issue at hand, and that is that our carers are not available to deliver the home care support service. It is not all about the fact we cannot get carers. It is about the system in general. Despite the fact we have the best paid civil servant as the head of the Department of Health and we have three Ministers all appointed in the Taoiseach's time, nothing is changing. In fact, it is getting worse. We have a Minister and two Ministers of State and we have a home care support system that cannot deliver care on a seven-day basis to a person who, up to his accident, was a 74-year-old tax-paying farmer, who was taken home by his wife and family to be cared for at home. He is now paraplegic. I have had Mr. Cummins’s name on the floor of the Dáil before. Despite the fact the accident happened and he returned home last October, he still only receives five-day care, one hour in the morning and one in the evening. I cannot get an answer from the head of that department in CHO 5, Helen McDaid. I have sent numerous emails, which are not even acknowledged, never mind addressed, and I cannot get a return phone call despite leaving several messages. Mrs. Cummins has suffered Covid and is not in the same position as she was to deliver her own care for her husband yet we cannot get an answer from CHO 5. I empathise greatly with Deputy Rabbitte not being able to get an answer, and she is the Minister of State.

I believe that, as the Head of Government, it is the Taoiseach's job to address this. Let me read him something that is even more tragic and which was on our local radio this morning. It was a call to the “Morning Mix” on Wexford local radio from Sharon Colgan. Sharon suffers with cerebral palsy and this past weekend she was left alone in a bed that she cannot get out of for 19 hours, with no food, no water and no toileting. She slept and sat in her own urine for seven hours. That is the home care support system that we have. If we cannot do better, we should be ashamed of ourselves.

I have here the rote letter that the HSE sends back every time:

The home support service operates within the constraints of available staffing resources, which impacts directly on the ability of the service to be delivered in its entirety. There are significant challenges in sourcing home support services at present.

Yes, there are: lazy admin staff. I have spoken to many carers who know what the answer is. We have staff whose clients go into hospital yet they are not put on a rota to look after anybody else. Can the Taoiseach please address this?

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