Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am committed to supporting people to age in place at home in their communities with the wrap-around supports, including the dementia-specific day care services, meals on wheels and home care. In order to bolster staff resources and reduce waiting times for allocation of service, Cork-Kerry community healthcare advertises on an ongoing basis for healthcare support assistants throughout the region. It has a rolling campaign ongoing at the moment. The rates of pay are quite attractive. The HSE rates start at €16.49 an hour, plus mileage. I have to say that we have been challenged to try to sell home care as a viable career opportunity. The private providers are also actively endeavouring to recruit additional staff resources. Given the nature of this role, this recruitment is normally conducted at a very local level, which is important, across the region. One of the recommendations of the strategic workforce advisory group is also that those private providers would have to pay a minimum of the living wage and they would also have to include mileage. That new tender is being worked out at the moment.

I understand the point the Deputy makes about the gentleman in question whose family wanted to bring him home but did not have sufficient home care. Many of the Deputies in the House will be able to relate to that case. From Monday to Friday, we are okay but a lot of the challenges are at the weekends and in rural areas. That is why it is important that, if we can at all, trying to recruit people at a local level is vital. In addition, patients regularly discharge directly home from the acute setting with home support. Where patients are on the delayed transfer of care list because it is proving difficult to secure appropriate home supports, they can be offered a transitional care bed in a residential care facility. Last December just gone, we used that facility 1,000 times and in the first week of this year it was used 289 times. Home care is one of the issues I am trying hard to resolve. When I was appointed, there were over 9,000 people waiting for home care. Today, there are 3,200 people waiting and 2,800 with a partial home care package. I am hopeful that we will see some new people coming into the country who might be able to provide some support for us.

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