Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me the opportunity to raise this issue. The home care package is a service that has been a lifeline to many families throughout the length and breadth of the country. My family benefited enormously from it in times past. The work done by the care assistants who dedicate their lives to the care of others in their own home is invaluable, as is the care they give and their dedication.

6 o’clock

It would be remiss of me not to say that at the outset. At present, we face a crisis in home care and the delivery of home care services. No more than any other Deputies from all sides of this House, my constituency office is getting calls daily from people trying to get home care packages or to find home help services available for loved ones. Due to advancing years, they may want to get an increase in the hours. The home help and home care services undoubtedly have provided an enormous service to the State over the years, have been hugely beneficial and have saved the State an enormous amount of money by keeping people in their own homes for as long as possible. However, we now have a major issue. We came through the winter and many families have been scraping together to try to put together a package. We have worked with some families to try to build a package with private care and so forth because they want to keep their loved ones at home for as long as is humanly possible and are trying to do that. We have been told time out of number by the HSE and the powers that be that there is a shortage of staff. This did not happen today or yesterday, but goes back a number of months.

The issue I want to raise today is what the State, the Government, the Minister and the HSE are doing to recruit more people into this area and to make the job of care assistant in the community more attractive. We have seen instances where the HSE has been contracting out hours to private companies to try to get cover but even that is proving difficult. Some of the senior HSE people are exhausted from trying to provide cover or get home help services. The HSE is then looking at the home help services in existence and is going out through the powers that be to see if they can reduce the hours for some people to spread the service more thinly on the ground. That is totally unacceptable because in some of the cases I have, families need more help for their loved one, not having it reduced because of a shortage of staff. The Government needs to be innovative about getting more people involved. The position of care assistant needs to be an attractive position and new people must be attracted into it to make sure. As we go on, it is fundamental and hugely important, given the aging population, that the home care and home help services are enhanced and strengthened because that is the only way we will be able to keep people in their own homes for as long as is possible.

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