Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her very important question. I am in a unique situation in that I have a budget that can fund every home care package in the country. My budget for the delivery of home care across the country is €672 million. Every day, 55,000 people receive home care. The problem is that we currently have approximately 5,300 people awaiting home care. The packages are funded but we have a shortage of staff. I have put in place a strategic workforce planning group working with the stakeholders in order to deliver this. We will be making recommendations very quickly. We are looking at everything, including people from outside the EU coming here to provide home care. We are also looking at targeted supports, such as people who are in a position to work 12, 15 or 18 hours a week to try to provide home support. I want to make home care a viable career option and to support people who choose to go into home care to progress the whole way through.

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