Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy. It is important to highlight that notwithstanding that this is the highest number in all the different regions, we are still not meeting the need. While we recognise that there are recruitment challenges, both for the public and private sector, the emphasis on management of resources and management from the perspective of the user is still very important. An hour a week appears to me to be a grossly undermet need.

I stood in a constituent's house this week, looking at the care schedule for a gentleman in Carysfort Downs in Blackrock. I looked at all the different carers who were coming in. There were five or six carers every day. This man is at a period of acute need in his life. Looking at the management processes, some carers come two or three times a week, but there are five or six different people a day. One has to wonder about the management of that, given the scale of the resources being provided to the private provider. From the perspective of this gentleman's wife, the absence of continuity of care for her means she has to explain what is different every time. One wonders about the cost of this and the customer service or client focus that is being delivered. It seems curious that so many different carers are needed for a single individual and that they cannot be rostered in a way that provides the best continuity of care, the best support and the best relationship development. There are questions around the management of this. Coming to it from the perspective of the person's need is by far the most important thing.

We are struggling with a recruitment challenge. It is important that we have people in this country to be able to meet the need. If we want to have people at home for as long as possible, then we need more healthcare assistants. I am afraid this is linked to questions of migration that come up again and again. This issue is important in highlighting that with a growing population that is ageing more and more, there will be a greater need for more people in this country who will be ready and available to provide the sorts of services that the Deputy and I would like to see for our constituents.

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