Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. The overall budget for home care this year is more than €700 million and our target is to provide just under 4 million home support hours this year, which is so important for keeping people in their homes and enabling them to be discharged from hospital in a timely manner, so it is money well spent, in my view. The existing tender for home support services was extended at the end of 2022, initially until the end of April and now until the end of June. The HSE is in negotiations with home care providers to progress a new tender and no final decision on the tender content has yet been reached, but the HSE's proposed extension of the existing contract arrangements will allow further time to finalise tender arrangements. This is a major priority for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and I am sure she will get it over the line as soon as possible.

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