Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

How a society treats and takes care of its older people says a great deal about the values of that society. The way that older people are currently treated does not reflect well on the basic values that underpin our current for-profit, capitalist society. It is a society and an economy where care work is massively undervalued and under-provided. Where it is provided, it is on a for-profit basis, as Gino outlined, often with very high levels of exploitation of those who are providing it. These are older people who in most cases have worked their entire lives, have produced a huge amount of wealth and have paid taxes. They now find themselves effectively abandoned by the State. Some are effectively compelled to go into nursing homes when it is not the most appropriate thing for them or what they want to do. A major burden is placed on their families. Families want to do everything they possibly can to care for their elderly relatives but there is serious pressure. A significant amount of unpaid labour is also taking place in our society, 1 billion hours of care work a year, saving the State €2 billion. People are not treated with the respect they deserve.

The answer is very simple and has been recognised by the Government previously. It is to have a statutory right to home care, for us, as a society, to provide appropriate home care free at the point of use, paid for through general progressive taxation. It is a political choice not to do that. We live in a wealthy society. We will have a surplus of €65 billion over the coming years. However, as has been outlined in this debate, we have seen delay after delay in development. This scheme was in the 2016 programme for Government and was originally targeted for implementation in 2021, yet here we are in June 2024 with little progress. In 2020, the then Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, claimed there was a scheme nearly ready and said that a new Government, whoever the Minister for Health might be, should be in a position to bring it forward quite quickly. A parliamentary question was tabled by the former Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, about a week ago, asking for an assurance that the general scheme of a statutory home care scheme Bill be published in 2024 and inquiring as to the reason progress has been slow in the past two years. This man was Taoiseach for the past two years, so presumably he should know why progress has been slow. If the scheme continues at its current pace, never mind this Government, it will not be implemented within the next Government either. It must be prioritised and backed with sufficient resources. Initially, the statutory entitlement to home care was at the very core of what the Government would talk about but now it is often not mentioned in Government contributions in the Oireachtas.

Funding has been rarely mentioned in the past four years and funding options have not been developed.

The consequence is the picture we see, namely the effective abandonment of many older people. Family Carers Ireland says that 74% of those surveyed report that the individuals they support do not receive sufficient formal support. We obviously know we are heading into a situation with more and more older people, so we need to resolve this urgently.

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