Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for selecting this issue for discussion. It is an important issue both nationally and locally.

I was appalled recently at a health board meeting when I was informed that in County Mayo, there will now be a review of home help hours. As soon as I heard that, I said to the officials that a review means there will be cuts. I have since read in the newspapers that they are now deciding how carers should look after someone, how much time they can spend with those they look after and how while they are being asked to do an impossible job, they will be timed by the health services. We are not dealing with animals - we are dealing with people - and they cannot be timed.

How can a person in need of a home help be treated like this? This is the lowest blow this Government has struck since it came into office. There is no doubt the recent cutbacks have been hurtful and severe but this is the lowest of the low. I am surprised Fianna Fáil would do this to the most vulnerable in society, those who need help most.

I would not mind but home helps save the State a huge amount. If it was not for those who come into people's homes to give them a bit of support and backup, they would need to be in full-time care and would cost the State much more. Home help is the greatest scheme ever introduced. It has worked well but timing home helps - how fast they can get someone's breakfast and clean up their house - is inhuman. I am surprised any Minister, any Government or any politician of any party could stand over this and allow the HSE to do it.

I am saying to the Government tonight that this will be fought every step of the way. In my own county of Mayo, there is talk that they will take away 50,000 home help hours. We are a broad constituency, the third largest county in the country, with rural areas where people are very scattered. They depend on the home help service.

The person who contacted me is looked after by a home help who works beyond the call of duty. On one occasion, the home help came in when she was off duty. She gets tea for this person and painted the house and did not want to be paid for it; she wanted to help. The person, however, was delighted to have the home help hours.

This is an outrageous attack on the elderly and I am surprised the Government and the Fianna Fáil Party are letting this happen. I say shame on the Minister for Health and Children, because this is the lowest blow of all. I say to the HSE that surely to God there must be another way for it to make savings. It is not long since it was spending money in my county on conferences to make sure the budget for the year was spent. I say shame on them to the HSE and the Minister. They should stay away from the home helps, the old, the weak and the sick. If they must make cuts, they better make them somewhere else.

If the Government can find money for the banks and for everyone else, we must find it for the home helps because this is the greatest attack I have seen by Fianna Fáil and the Green Party on rural life, rural people and particularly the elderly. All I can say is shame on Fianna Fáil, it has gone to the lowest of the low.

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Ring for raising this issue as it provides me with an opportunity to update the House on Government policy on the home help service specifically, and community services generally, for older people.

The guiding principle of Government policy in this area is to support older people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. This is realised through a range of community-based supports such as home help, home care packages, meals-on-wheels and day and respite care.

The importance attached to these services is highlighted by the fact that between 2006 and 2010, over €200 million additional funding was provided to the HSE to develop such supports for older people. Without these initiatives, many older people would spend longer than necessary in acute hospitals, or would be admitted to residential care earlier than might be required. Home care services are provided either directly by the HSE or in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, or by arrangement with private providers.

Despite the serious economic constraints experienced in recent times, we have continued to prioritise improving community services for older people. This is reflected in the €10 million additional funding provided in the last budget, to expand home care packages nationally. These packages often contain a significant home help component.

The HSE national service plan 2010, which was approved by the Minister for Health and Children last March, commits the executive to providing almost 12 million home help hours to over 54,000 people. With reference to the Deputy's question, the national target for 2010 for home help hours is unchanged from the 2009 figure. The HSE has, therefore, formally committed to delivering this year effectively the same number of home help hours as were provided in 2009. Any change to this commitment would have to be notified to the Department.

In addition to the mainstream home help provision, the current service plan is designed to deliver home care packages to around 9,600 people at any one time, or to some 13,000 clients over the course of the year. This represents an increase for this particular initiative over last year. The plan also provides for 21,300 day care places, which should facilitate an estimated 80,000 people.

Other important initiatives in relation to home care supports are also being undertaken at a strategic level. Arising from an evaluation of home care packages, commissioned by the Department of Health and Children and published in December last, the HSE established a task group to progress this year various improvements in home care provision, including the delivery of home care packages, the allocation of home help hours, and the procurement of home care services generally. The various guidelines now being prepared are intended to allow the HSE adopt a more standardised approach nationally to the provision of home care services, including home help. The draft guidelines will have to be considered by senior management in the HSE, and will be submitted to the Department of Health and Children for consideration.

The Health Service Executive has operational responsibility for the delivery of health and social services. The Deputy will appreciate that decisions in the area of home care have to be addressed in the light of the current economic and budgetary pressures. The executive has been asked to make a rigorous examination of how existing funding might be re-configured or re-allocated to ensure maximum service provision is achieved. This requires a stringent ongoing review of the application of the resources currently available.

Unfortunately, due to the current industrial action, this is the most up to date information available to me. I regret that I do not have any more information at present but if the Deputy wishes to raise this matter again once the current industrial action has ended, I will endeavour to have the matter re-examined at that stage.