Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. We are now very much in a phase where not only is the number of people living in our country growing, which is a great gift to the ability of our economy to grow and our society to grow and flourish, we are also seeing more people who are older and have the level of care need to which the Deputy referred. Growing life expectancy in our country - the growing length of life many of us have to look forward to - is unreservedly and positively a very good thing but it brings with it important consequences from a policy point of view that we are now beginning to experience particularly within our healthcare system.

In terms of what we are doing generally in this regard, we have put in place a commission on care, which is preparing a report for the Government on the effectiveness and adequacy of the healthcare supports for our elderly, conscious that they will grow in numbers in the years ahead and that they deserve the support we all want to give them. Regarding the here and now and what we are doing to help people year by year, the total level of spending currently going into old persons' services is approximately €3 billion. That is an increase of €349 million from the budget that went before that. I will give one example that helps to translate that figure into what it tangibly means for older people and those who love them and want to see them get the care they deserve. A total of 24.3 million hours of home care will be delivered in Ireland this year, ensuring that around 60,000 of our older citizens get the support they need and deserve within their own homes. It is fair to say that when it comes to providing supports, we continue to experience difficulties in getting and keeping the people we need to provide that level of home care support. That, in turn, feeds into the point the Deputy made regarding the waiting times people face to access that support in the first place. The Minister for Health will continue to look at how we can tackle this issue. We have seen a really big increase in funding for that in recent years.

I will end where I began by noting that our life expectancy is growing. Being able to live, work, contribute to our country and experience the benefits of longer life is unreservedly positive. However, it brings with it important policy consequences that we are dealing with budget to budget. The commission on care is the Government's effort to have a more strategic approach to this matter, which will define what our country looks like in the decades ahead.

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