Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question and her continued interest in the matter. As she said, this is a very important sector. Currently, 55,000 people receive home care in their own homes. The Government is very serious about home care and I have a budget of €670 million to deliver it. Last year, we increased the level of home care by 2 million hours, bringing the total to 21 million hours delivered in that year. Unfortunately, we are challenged from a workforce point of view. Approximately 5,300 people are awaiting home care. That figure increased by 1,000 in April alone, even though we had delivered 7% more hours than we had by the same point in the previous year. More people are being referred for home care.

The strategic workforce group, which is meeting, will not report until September, as the Deputy noted, but we are trying to make home care a viable career choice such that we can encourage more people to go into it and to see it as a long-term career opportunity. I will bring that legislation to the House before Christmas.

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