Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy asked quite a number of questions. I will comment on that relating to the tender. The HSE is working with the various sectors in order to have the tender in place for 1 May. This tender is going to be different. As the Deputy will be aware, I set up the strategic workforce advisory group last year. The group made 16 recommendations to encourage home care workers back into the market.

This tender will reflect the living wage in regard to tendering out to private organisations and will also reflect travel money and time between travelling. A lot of work is being done and, as a result, we are hopeful this will mean more people going into home care services. We currently have 56,000 people a day receiving home care. The waiting list at present is 3,500 people who are funded but do not receive home care, and there are approximately 3,000 people who receive a partial package but not seven days a week.

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