Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

First, I appreciate the issues the Deputy has raised and the individual cases she has raised. It is not satisfactory that any person would have to go through that in regard to access to home care. The issue, as the Deputy knows, is not one of funding now because €150 million of additional funding was provided in 2021 to provide for 5 million more hours of home support, and that funding is being maintained in 2022. That obviously required significantly enhanced recruitment, and it has become a recruitment issue. The total number of people waiting for home support across the system has gone down from 9,000 at the start of 2020 to about 4,500 now, at the end of this month. We want to get that down to zero. That will mean recruitment and reducing and getting rid of barriers to recruitment, and there is work under way on that, as the Deputy knows, in terms of the group that has been established to deal with specific obstacles to recruiting carers, home carers in particular.

I will ask the Minister of State to work with the Deputy in respect of those two cases. Across Wexford, the numbers waiting have come down from approximately 700 to 400 and a targeted approach is being adopted.

Very significant initiatives were taken in the last budget around carers. It straddles a number of Departments, including the Department of Social Protection. We have a Minister of State dealing with the area of additional hours and home help hours in particular. Very significant progress was made in securing resources. The biggest challenge we have right now is recruiting people to work in home care capacities. That is the biggest challenge facing us. That is something on which we have to do better, notwithstanding the progress that has been made in respect of external recruitment into the country as well.

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