Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. The HSE tender is currently being renewed. It was meant to be in place on 1 January. I was informed yesterday that the new tender will not be in place until 1 March. The pay rates for home care workers working for the HSE start at €16.50 per hour plus mileage, which is much more than that paid by private providers. We want to make sure that we get this tender right. We also need to ensure that it will be stated in the tender, where home care is being provided through private providers, that the living wage will have to be paid, in addition to mileage. I will also engage with the Deputy offline on this.

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