Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I want to focus my contribution on the issue of the home help service. It was reported in the press at the weekend that the HSE had written to private home care providers directing that the home help package be reduced from one hour to 45 minutes. This cutback means, in effect, that home help workers throughout the country will have to call to the homes of elderly and vulnerable people, help get them out of bed, wash them, dress them, feed them and have them ready to go within 45 minutes. I would like to see the Minister work for a day as a home help provider and try to do that. I would like to see Mr. Bernard Gloster try to do likewise. It might not be impossible for an experienced home help worker to do it, but even in that instance it could be done only in a rush, squeezing the space and time for conversation, for listening and for a rounded, humane relationship. Cutting home help to 45 minutes is a big cutback, at 25%. It is mean and nasty and it will impact negatively on some of the oldest and most vulnerable people in our society. It will also impact negatively on low-paid, women workers whose contribution to our health service and society has been undervalued for years. This cutback should be reversed.

Mr. Gloster is correct when he says the funding allocated to the HSE in budget 2024 is inadequate, that the shortfall for 2024 will be in the region of €1.4 billion or €1.5 billion and that the combined deficit for this year and next year could be as high as €2.7 billion. A government that underfunds our health service to this degree does not deserve to stay in office. The fiasco of this situation, and what it could mean for people over the course of this winter, seriously increases the likelihood of the Government being given its marching orders by the electorate come the general election.

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