Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. Deputy Marc MacSharry has a Topical Issue matter along similar lines. I welcome the fact the review is coming up in the next couple of months. I hope and pray this suggestion will be taken into consideration. It has been made by a number of Deputies over the past few months. If there was ever a no-brainer, and I do not like to use that kind of language, this is a no-brainer. The Minister of State said the sector must demonstrate that the requirement is there for the additional intake of employees from non-EU countries. The most demonstrable fact of that is that hundreds of thousands of hours are not being utilised. If there was ever a business case to be made, surely that is it. I hope the Department takes that into consideration.

I have to agree with the Minister of State, Deputy English on the role of the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, who has done a good job since assuming office. She has increased the budget considerably and the number of hours since taking over, as I referenced in my opening statement. She has accumulated an additional 5 million hours per annum, which is much needed. Those hours are useless unless people can avail of them. I genuinely hope this can be looked at.

I am aware of the advisory group deliberating in the next couple of months. It is now very important that we get people the care they need. As I said earlier, national policy is to keep people at home as comfortable as possible, giving them their care needs in their own homes as well as possible. This kind of move would provide for that.

As I said, I understand the visa requirement is that these employees would earn a minimum of €27,000 but the sector needs to work on that. Given that many of its staff are part time, it might be able to expand the workforce, improve pay and conditions by doing that. Even a rudimentary sum done on €27,000 a year at 39 hours a week shows it would be equivalent to about €13.50 or €14 an hour, which is above the minimum wage but below the HSE wage. However, €27,000 is not a wage to be sniffed at.

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