Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

We have a model of assistance for older people in their homes in Donegal that we are very proud of. It is a publicly delivered system in the main and we have not delegated it out to the private sector. Some tremendous people are working in those services in Donegal but they are being held back by the Government. Its pay and number strategy is basically a recruitment freeze.

The Government and HSE senior management are preventing the recruitment of home care assistance in Donegal and waiting lists are growing. These are older people who need essential care and their families need respite. The knock-on effect of this is that we also have a profound crisis in our major acute hospital, Letterkenny University Hospital. Beds in that hospital could be freed up every single week but because of the growing waiting list, we have a knock-on crisis. If there is a failure in recruiting the necessary numbers of home care assistants and a lack of beds in community hospitals, there will be a bottleneck at the emergency department and a crisis. A disaster zone is how it is regularly described.

I ask the Government to get rid of its pay and numbers strategy, to respect the publicly delivered model we have in Donegal and not to force us to privatise our home care system in Donegal.

That is a model we are proud of and we will fight the Government hard if it tries to do that.

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