Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for bringing the motion to the House. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the work done and the challenges faced by our home care and home support workers in the face of a Government that speaks about the importance of community care but fails to invest in the way it should. The Government's underfunding of the health service has been met with dismay by service providers and, indeed, by hospital managers whose ability to address the high numbers presenting to emergency departments is dependent upon community care. I have been told by management at University Hospital Limerick, UHL, that the recruitment freeze on home care assistants, which is the result of underfunding, will affect care in the community. Record numbers are presenting at UHL and care in the community is an important part of addressing that issue but the Government has thrown in the towel. Representatives of Tipperary University Hospital have told me that the recruitment freeze has the potential to impact patient safety. They are making every effort to mitigate risk. This is where the Government has led us.

For south Tipperary and the adjoining hinterlands, a vital resource of care in the community was shut by the HSE in a way that can only be described as underhand. St. Brigid's Hospital had three palliative, two respite and 11 convalescent beds that were scrapped. The private sector is being relied upon for some beds while to access others, families who wish to see their loved ones must travel further. This is just another example of the lack of joined-up thinking on the part of the HSE and, ultimately, the Department of Health.

We also note that there continues to be a lack of home care support packages in south and north Tipperary. Take community healthcare organisation 5, CHO 5, for example. In the middle of 2023, there were 1,003 clients waiting for home support hours. Imagine if they were to know that a matter of months later, in addition to the already insufficient number of home care hours, the recruitment of healthcare and home care assistants would be halted and the service underfunded. The capacity to deliver care in people's own homes or local communities simply does not exist because of political choices. We have 1,000 fewer public nursing home beds today than we had in 2014. The Government watches on while 6,000 people are on waiting lists for home care and while thousands do not receive their full allocation of hours. This Government has given up on families who are left bearing the consequences.

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