Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In 2023, the overall budget for home support will exceed €700 million. Over the last three budgets, I have secured more than €200 million in additional funding for home care support, a 42% increase since 2020. I thank the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, for his support, and that of the whole Government and Cabinet, in ensuring this particular funding has been provided.

I am in the unique position that I have the full provision of funding I need to deliver home care to 56,500 people every day. The problem, unfortunately, is that as of today, we still have 6,200 people on a waiting list. Their care is funded - I cannot be clear enough about that - but we do not have the staff to provide the services at the moment.

Last year, we delivered 20.9 million hours of home care. Already, we are 6% ahead of target this year. We are seeing more people being referred for home care supports. The three main provisions to protect people and support people to age well at home are home care, day care centres and meals on wheels. We are doing a huge amount of work in this area. I am very concerned about the lack of staff, especially at weekends and in rural areas, when it comes to delivering home care. This year, I put in place strategic workforce advisory group. This is a very important committee that works across Departments. It also includes representatives of those who provide supports from the private, public and voluntary sectors. The group made 16 key recommendations and I have endorsed every one of them. The Deputy may have heard that last week, the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, and I announced the provision of 1,000 permits for home care workers from outside of the EU who will be able to apply from January. We know this initiative has been successful because to date more than 2,540 people have come into the nursing home sector on these permits.

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