Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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I have raised on a number of occasions the issue on home helps in the Kildare-west Wicklow area. A total of 800 home helps do not receive travel expenses. I have tabled numerous parliamentary questions on this matter. The replies I received indicated that home helps in other areas are paid these expenses directly through the Health Service Executive and through voluntary organisations. I am delighted this is happening, but why can the same not apply to home helps in the Kildare-west Wicklow area?

I have been told by letter that an exercise is currently in progress to establish entitlements on an individual basis to travel expenses and to make arrangements for the payment of same. That has been ongoing since before Christmas but no progress has been made in resolving the matter. Although we have computers we do not seem to be able to make progress in this regard.

Parts of Kildare and west Wicklow are very rural. As a result, most home helps have to travel and they have significant costs in terms of petrol and car maintenance in order to provide their service to people in the community every day. There has been a reduction in the number of home help hours provided to people and this has resulted in more house calls being made by each home help. This puts more pressure on the vehicles of home helps and increases the cost factor.

The voluntary organisations appear to be able to pay such expenses but the HSE, in spite of PPARS and the other computer systems, is not able to pay people. The latest reply I received from Eastern Community Works, ECW, in Kildare, which acts as paymasters to process payment for salaries only to home helps, indicated that the payment system used by ECW is limited in so far as it does not have the same capacity or flexibility as the HSE computer payments system. Why are payments not transferred to the HSE computer system if it has the capacity to deal with them? Why deprive these people who provide such a service?

Given that each home help probably helps up to five or six people, up to 2,000 people could be in receipt of home help assistance in County Kildare. In spite of the great work they do, these people have not been provided with expenses in recent years. This is the case despite the fact that ordinary voluntary organisations in other areas can provide a facility to pay these expenses.

I urge the Minister of State, for the sake of common sense, not to isolate these people who provide such a valuable service. We must ensure that if the ECW is not in a position to provide the computer service that is required to calculate and ensure home helps get their money, then payments will be transferred to the main HSE computer in Millennium Park. We must ensure payments are made. It is naturally wrong that home helps in all other areas can get expenses, but not in Kildare and west Wicklow. It is not logical to deprive one group of this payment, given the service they are giving and the need for proper transport. Travel expenses would go toward ensuring the service could continue to be provided.

Jimmy Devins (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney. I thank Deputy Wall for raising this issue and giving me the opportunity to outline the situation regarding the payment of arrears due to home helps for travel expenses in the Kildare and west Wicklow area.

I am advised by the HSE that the home helps in Kildare and west Wicklow are employed by Eastern Community Works. I understand the delay in payment in this case is due to technical difficulties in processing payments. Work is ongoing to rectify these difficulties and information regarding outstanding claims is currently being gathered. Staff affected can be assured that payments will be made as soon as possible, once these difficulties have been resolved.

It is our policy that services for older people should be developed and delivered in a such a way that enables them to be maintained at home with dignity and independence for as long as possible in accordance with their wishes, as expressed in many research studies. Those older people who become ill or dependent should be restored to a level of independence at home. The role of family, neighbours and voluntary bodies in caring for older people in their own community is also to be supported and actively encouraged. The home help service is vital to the implementation of this policy. The aim of the home help service is to enable people to remain at home, where appropriate, who might otherwise need to be cared for in residential care. It is recognised that the home help service is an essential support to family and informal carers.

On the specific area of home help services, an additional €33 million was given in 2006 which funded an extra 1.75 million home help hours. This was augmented by a further €18 million in 2007 which resulted in 780,000 extra hours coming on stream. The 2008 budget includes a further €4.6 million in additional expenditure by the HSE for 200,000 extra home help hours this year. The executive expects to provide a total of around 11.98 million home help hours nationally in 2008.

As part of the HSE's ongoing transformation programme there is a move to the provision of care in the community — primary care — and this is being supported by the introduction of primary care teams throughout the country. Primary care teams should be the first access point for persons who need to access the health system. It is intended that they will facilitate people's access into, through and out of the system and ensure quality care is provided in a manner that maximises the convenience for patient and clients. Home helps will form a vital part of these teams.

In preparation for this new role the HSE, SIPTU and IMPACT established a high level group in 2006 to review the existing models of home help service with a view to establishing a standardised high quality service that would benefit both clientele and staff. A high level report was produced by this group in June 2007 and agreed by all parties. These improvements will help to ensure clients will receive the same high level of service wherever they are located in the country, as well as meaning the staff and their valuable work are given the appropriate recognition and reward.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Of the eight paragraphs in that reply only one related to the matter. It is the same answer I received to a written question before Christmas.