Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government seems to have thrown in the towel on the commitment it gave in the programme for Government to implement a statutory home support scheme over its term in government. It appears very unlikely at this stage. The failure to do that is pushing older and disabled people into hospitals and nursing homes, or into early admission to long-term residential care, when they should be cared for in their own homes. This was highlighted by the ombudsman in the report, Wasted Lives, which stated that the implementation of this scheme is necessary "to address the current bias in favour of [placing people in] institutional settings". As of June, over 6,000 people were on waiting lists for home care, half of whom were looking for new care and 2,900 of whom were looking for additional hours. Hundreds of people experienced delayed transfer from acute settings as a result either of home care packages not being approved or of home care packages being approved but awaiting carer availability. There are no carers available to them because the Government has failed to plan for a sufficient workforce or to address long-term pay and condition issues. That has harmed recruitment and retention. Family carers are being left to carry the burden on their own. I am constantly contacted by families who do not have sufficient carers. Sometimes weekends are not covered. People who need to be changed cannot be changed for the whole weekend. Perhaps their treatment requires two people to come in and operate a hoist. It is not fair on people and families and needs to be addressed. It is inevitable that this crisis will only get worse as the HSE has included home care staff in the recruitment freeze.

I previously raised with the Minister of State the issue of boarding out providers and the regulations around boarding out as an alternative to nursing home care. It is a much cheaper alternative that allows people to stay in the community. The relevant statutory instrument needs to be updated because the scheme has not been updated in many years. People are leaving the sector because they cannot afford to remain in it any more.

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