Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to discuss home support services and I thank the Deputies for tabling this Private Members’ motion. As Minister of State with responsibility for disability, the issue of home care is very relevant to my brief.

We know that most people prefer being cared for at home. The home support service is therefore essential for thousands of people across the country. As I stand here today, 56,000 individuals are receiving that home care support. It is highly valued by service users and their families because it enables older people to live independently and with dignity in their own homes for longer. It also enables many older people to return home following acute hospital admission. Otherwise, they may remain there or would be admitted to long-term residential care. For these reasons, improving access to this service is a Government priority.

Home support hours in communities are increasing in line with enhanced investment. We currently provide more hours of home support to more people than ever before. There are over 56,000 people receiving home support services, with almost 75,000 benefiting from the service over the course of 2022. We, as a nation, are investing €723 million into home care in 2023, representing a €228 million increase from 2020. In 2022, we provided 20.78 million hours, an increase of 3.29 million hours on 2020. As of 30 April 2023, preliminary data show that almost 7 million hours have been provided this year to date. This represents an increase of about 300,000 hours compared with the same period in 2022.

In terms of waiting lists the latest figures show there are a total of 3,310 new applicants who were approved for funding and waiting for supports. These are people who currently do not have a home support service and are awaiting a carer to be assigned. In addition, there are 2,884 people who are already receiving supports but are not yet receiving the maximum hours advised. That figure is down from a high of 9,000 on a waiting list. I wish to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work of carers up and down the country in delivering this unprecedented amount of care, and thank them for their commitment and for the care that they deliver in the homes of older people every single day.

In the programme for Government, we committed to introduce a statutory scheme for home care. A key step in this process is to regulate home support services in order that no matter where or how care is provided, service users can be assured that their provider meets minimum standards of quality, safeguarding and governance. I am pleased to say that significant progress has been made on this front. A new regulatory framework is currently being developed to provide for the licensing of home support service providers with the aim of safeguarding individuals. The new system of regulation for home support will ensure that the public can be confident that the services provided are of a high standard and will bring Ireland in line with best international practice. In addition, the Department of Health is currently preparing primary legislation to accompany the regulations. The Bill will be brought to the Oireachtas in quarter 4 of this year by the Minister of State, Deputy Butler.

There are still challenges in the sector, and in particular on the workforce side, and the Government is committed to improving recruitment and retention in the sector. In March 2022, the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, established the cross-departmental strategic workforce advisory group on home carers and nursing home healthcare assistants. It set out to examine and, most importantly, propose solutions to the challenges in front-line carer roles in the home support and long-term residential care sectors. The group is chaired by the Department of Health and comprised of representatives from seven Departments, the HSE, HIQA and SOLAS.

The report of the strategic workforce advisory group on home carers and nursing home healthcare assistants was published on 15 October 2022. It presents 16 recommendations spanning the areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform and monitoring and implementation. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, endorsed the recommendations and full implementation. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for home care workers was signed in December 2022. These permits will be for full-time positions with a minimum salary of €27,000 per year. Some 129 permits have been availed of to date, not 79 as set out by colleagues opposite. A group has been established to drive the timely implementation of the remaining recommendations. The first meeting of the implementation group is scheduled for 29 June 2023. Regular updates will be published. When I talk about the living wage, it is important also to state that the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, awards the HSE €28.50 per hour. That is what the HSE paid to the private providers.

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