Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward the motion. It is important that we look at this in the context of what is happening on the ground. People are being assessed for 14 hours of home care help but are getting five hours. An 85-year-old man rang me last Friday evening to say his home care worker was not available last weekend and there was no replacement. He was left on his own. He needs somebody there to feed him medicine a certain number of times per day but that is being left in God's hands at weekends. That probably sets out that something has fundamentally gone wrong.

The Department has done a report on recruitment and retention within home care services. I ask the Government to consider recommendation No. 8 of that report. I come across this a lot in my constituency of Galway East. The threshold of working 18 hours per week before one can qualify is not working. We need to bring it to 21.5 hours a week, as recommended in the report. Can the Government do that in the context of this budget in order to allow people to work and not to disenfranchise them in terms of their social welfare? In terms of the impact of working an extra 3.5 hours, there is tax coming in on that and it allows people to do the home care hours such that there is less reliance on the State putting people into long-term care. The second thing is we should reform jobseeker's allowance to move it from a days worked model to an hours worked model. That is also in the recommendation to which I referred. There is a need to explore the impact of working on income limits on employers and social welfare recipients through the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands. These are recommendations the Department has put forward. What is happening with those recommendations? Will they be sent into the ether in terms of committees, strategies, policies and whatever else or will we take direct action?

There are people working every day of the week and at the same time ensuring their loved one is being cared for at home. Sláintecare states that people should be kept out of long-term care for as long as possible. The way it is being done at the moment is driving people into long-term care. I know that is a concern for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler. She raised it previously in the context of vacant houses. This is an opportunity for her and the Government to take this by the scruff of the neck. There should be particular consideration given to people in rural areas. where there is isolation and a person may see nobody other than the postman during the day. It is time to look at this in a practical way. It is not scientific. It does not need any reports to be written up. It takes direct action to allow people to work 21.5 hours and still be able to act as carers without any impact on their social welfare benefits. That will help private providers, the HSE and home care hours. Let us keep it simple, support those who need help and do it now.

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