Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also commend Deputy Harkin and the Independent Group for tabling this motion. It is very comprehensive and covers a lot of ground.

Over the past two or three weeks in particular, I have had to deal with a number of cases where family members' loved ones who are in community hospitals or the general hospital are coming home and require care. In some cases, they have a certain amount of care already but they need an extra person, an extra carer, to help out where, for example, there might be a hoist in use and two people are needed to operate it. I pay tribute to and thank the home care teams in Kerry for their assistance, particularly those in the Tralee and Listowel offices who deal with our requests in a very straightforward and speedy manner.

In Kerry there is a growing crisis within the sector. There is much concern at the growing waiting list for home care assistance in the CHO 4 area, which includes Kerry. Sobering figures were published as part of the Home and Community Care Ireland, HCCI, new quarterly report known as the HCCI Home Care Data Series. According to that report, 404 people in Kerry were waiting for home care support at the end of 2022, up 94% on the figures for the same period in 2021. This translates into families under pressure and stress, having to put their lives on hold and into those being cared for having to ask friends, neighbours or other loved ones to be there for them when they are getting up in the morning, to help the care assistant. More help is needed. The figures for the rest of the CHO 4 area show that Kerry has some of the worst wait times of any region in the State.

There is some positive news as waiting lists for approved funding have reduced. However, funding is only one part of the picture and many areas have funds in place but people are either not able to get a carer or not able to get more hours when they require them. As my colleague Deputy Carthy said, people have to negotiate all of the stepping stones involved with means tests and making an application for carer's allowance. These additional elements of bureaucracy are difficult for them to deal with in an already stressful situation. Home care is vital to preserve the independence and dignity of the elderly. Without it, many can end up in nursing home settings when they could be cared for where they want to be, which is at home. Home care also has a role to play in ensuring that our hospitals, about which we have heard so much recently, are not overcrowded.

The solutions are relatively simple and they must be tackled. Training, recruitment and retention must be improved and a pay agreement within the sector must be struck. Over the last few years, a lot of home care assistant provision was outsourced. A recruitment campaign has started but more effort needs to be put into directly employing home care assistants in the future and paying them properly for the great work they do in the community. A commission on care must be established and proper workforce planning undertaken. Without these changes, the waiting lists are going to grow and the State is going to end up picking up the tab, one way or another. These measures must be put in place to provide dignity and a decent quality of life for the people who have given so much to families and the State over the years.

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