Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will be sharing time with Deputy Nash. I commend our colleague, Deputy Duncan Smith, on introducing this very important motion which I know is close to his own heart and to all of our hearts. It is vital that we give recognition for home care workers and home helps who, as Deputy Smith has said, are indeed the unsung heroes of our healthcare system. I think we can all agree on that. They provide an incredible service and those who receive care from them are deeply appreciative of the work they do.

They are mostly women and all of us know many women who provide home care services. I recently met one woman who had been doing home help work for decades, as so many have. She started out, as so many did, almost as a voluntary sort of charity worker. I think the amount being paid that was £1 an hour and it was a sort of gratuity system. Over the years I have met groups representing home helps who wanted to move the recognition of their work from that sort of gratuity-based almost voluntary system to the more professional service we have today. However, unfortunately that cultural view of home helps still remains. One woman who has been working as a home help for years says that she has to race between clients, that she is on the clock, and that she does not feel she has the time to give her clients the warmth and the social connection which is such an integral part of home help work. Deputy Duncan Smith spoke about the recruitment and retention crisis. That is how it is felt at the sharp end by those, mostly women, who are providing care in the home.

The figures speak for themselves and the Minister of State is well aware of them. Some 6,000 people on the waiting list have been assessed for home support but simply cannot access it.

There are 18,000 care home carers but only 5,300 of them are directly employed by the HSE. The majority of home carers work in the private sector, often with poor pay and conditions. We need to see a real rewrite of our system of home care. The Labour Party's motion seeks to provide for the essential reforms required. In my work last year chairing the Joint Committee on Gender Equality, the experience of hearing those who provide care and their representatives and from those who need care really brought home to me the need for a really serious reform of our system. We need a better way, a new system that can put an end to unfair pay and conditions that leave workers like the woman I met burned out and struggling to make ends meet - the kind of system that could keep our older people and friends and relatives with disabilities out of hospitals and care homes and in the comfort of their homes. We need a system that will enable families to be assured that the funding will be available for what should be an essential State service. A reformed system would also bridge the gender gap between women and men in terms of work in the care economy and for those who require care. Our motion seeks to achieve real reform.

It is disappointing that the Government tabled an amendment to the motion. Reading the text of the Government amendment might lead someone to believe nothing is wrong with the system and that no one is on a waiting list. We all know that is not true. I know the Minister of State is well aware of that. She has been critical of shortcomings in the system. The Labour Party cannot accept the countermotion. We will press our motion and I am proud to second it. We do not suggest that fixing the broken and patchwork system will be easy but it is not helpful to pretend the problem does not exist or that the system is working for everyone when it is not.

My colleagues in the Labour Party will speak to other aspects of the motion such as some of the key ways the system needs to be fixed. In the brief time left, I will focus on the need for a referendum to recognise care work. We in this House accepted and the Joint Committee on Gender Equality unanimously accepted that it is required, yet the Government amendment does not even mention the referendum on care work. As Deputy Duncan Smith said, the Government committed to the referendum to amend Article 41 of the Constitution to delete the sexist language around women and mothers and replace it with an important text that would recognise the value of care and acknowledge the State's role in supporting care inside and outside the home. It is frustrating that the Government has apparently abandoned plans to hold the referendum this year. On International Women's Day in March, the Taoiseach announced it would take place in 2023, as the Minister of State will be aware, yet we have heard nothing since. The Government has failed to honour its commitment to hold a vote and that failure and that delay emphasises the Government's undervaluing of care. It is no coincidence that we see the work of carers so denigrated by State policies. Most carers, as I have said, are women and many are also from migrant backgrounds. They feel undervalued by the Government and the delay in holding the referendum and the failure of the Government to even say when it will be held contributes to the sense of being undervalued. The Labour Party's motion would address that and ensure the work carers do is truly valued by the State and it clearly sets out a pathway to achieving the valuing of care work. We urge the Government to accept it.

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