Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

Let us remember the time during Covid when people went out to clap for our front-line healthcare workers. We were told we now recognised these workers and that things had changed. That seems like a lifetime ago. These are workers who enable people with high care needs to live with dignity at home. They are a vital support to our hospitals and nursing homes, yet carers, both paid and unpaid, are under significant and unsustainable strain due to inconsistent access to services, limited financial supports, inadequate staffing levels and regional disparities in care provision.

We also know from all our constituencies that nursing homes are overstretched. I am sure many of the Deputies in this Chamber have heard from nursing homes in their constituencies that are facing significant pressures and maybe even closure. There can also be a language element to this in the case of Gaeltacht areas and people being able to access that care through Irish.

Hard-pressed families are facing major costs to pay for loved ones who require long-term care but there has been next to no investment in public care homes. From what I can see, Sláintecare 2025 does not seem to have any proposed policy framework for long-term residential care, despite it being home to more than 32,000 people. When it comes to home care, too, there is a gaping hole in the Government's plans. It has failed to deliver the statutory home care scheme, a long-term commitment of the Government. We have proposed a scheme that would give a legal entitlement to health and social care, which would try to keep people in their homes. Again, there is a regional issue here with regard to people being able to access care from their homes, depending on how far and isolated they are from their local town or city.

I am concerned we are once again drifting towards a situation where the State is stepping back further from public provision, just like in housing, where investment funds and asset managers of all stripes have stepped in, or perhaps been incentivised to come in. We do not want to see the same here.

See this speech in context