Chris Andrews (Dublin Bay South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Ceann Comhairle back to the Chamber. It is good to see him looking well.

The Minister of State has identified all the challenges and blockages. What we need now is real action and not just observations. We also need a strategy, as throwing money at it is not a strategy. Home care is an essential service, and without a workforce strategy, there will be no improvement in home care delivery. The Government throwing money at it is not a strategy. The failure to put a home care workforce strategy in place is pushing patients into hospitals when they could be cared for in their own homes.

Everyone, including the Minister of State, knows the problems, but we are not getting the action we need. We need delivery. We have had enough of reports and reviews. Our communities need to see the reform of the home care sector. What we have now is effectively a race to the bottom. We need a career pathway that will allow home care staff to develop their skills and train to deliver a quality service, and this needs to be recognised. There needs to be a collective pay agreement for home care workers that takes into account travel times, as mentioned by the Minister of State, so why has she not done this? We all know this needs to be done. We need action.

We also need to see home care workers having access to work visas in the same way as home care workers in hospitals and nursing homes. Unless that is done, there will be a haemorrhaging of home care workers into nursing homes and hospital settings, which will ensure there is never an improvement in home care delivery. Providers are haemorrhaging staff because the Government has not introduced the necessary standards and requirements to ensure people want to work and will work in home care services. There needs to be a level playing field for all providers of home care, such as in hospitals, home care settings and nursing homes. We do not have a level playing field now. Home care workers cannot access visas, which means home care companies are training staff for nursing homes, the HSE and the hospitals.

See this speech in context