Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. Over a long number of years the delivery of incontinence wear has been hugely important to people in various parts of this country, including in very remote areas, where this service has been made available by the HSE. It has been invaluable, especially for families that are vulnerable or may have a vulnerable person in their house who needs the service.

Unfortunately, I and other politicians have been made aware of the service required not being as good in its delivery of incontinence wear to people in various parts of the country. One cannot just say one will come today or some other day with this service. Unfortunately, from what I understand, the satisfaction rate, which the HSE examined, is low at present. The Minister of State may be able to confirm this. I believe - and the Minister of State can also confirm whether or not this is the case - that two HSE management people have looked at the situation in recent days. There has been a kind of cloud over this for a while, with temporary contracts rolling over and over. With these temporary contracts, my understanding is that there is a large amount of money due from the HSE to a company. I also believe that under the contract, the manufacturer and the supplier were not to be paid directly but that payment was to be made to the person who got the contract. My understanding is that this has all changed now. Unfortunately, with all that is going on in this situation, it appears that the most vulnerable person, that is, the person who needs the incontinence wear, is the person losing out. I know from some communities and some people who telephone me that they do not know what is going on. Is there a fear in the HSE that there is a problem that needs to be sorted? I believe that the contract, even though it is a temporary one, has been changed twice in recent months. I do not know how this can be done, but that is what appears to have been done to try to solve problems. Where is the HSE in all this? Will this situation be sorted out? Regardless of who manufactures or delivers a product, it is the people at the end who need the product who are of the utmost importance, and it needs to be delivered on time. My understanding is that something like 18 boxes were to be delivered. It has been pointed out that the previous contract was wide open to interpretation. Where is the HSE in all this? Will the matter be sorted out shortly? As I said, down through the years this has been a very good service. We must ensure this matter is resolved once and for all.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Fitzmaurice for the opportunity to address this issue in the House. The community funded schemes are a collective name for the many products, supports, supplies and aids and appliances provided through the HSE community services for eligible persons. The schemes' main purpose is to assist and support service users to live at home and to facilitate hospital avoidance and assist with early discharge from hospital. The products are prescribed by consultants, GPs, public health nurses, continence advisers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and dieticians. The products include incontinence wear which is delivered to healthcare settings, such as long-stay residential services, and to persons in their own homes.

The HSE has a national contract for the supply of incontinence products. In addition to providing incontinence wear products to healthcare settings such as long-stay residential services, the HSE provides home deliveries to eligible persons in their own homes.

Following a tendering process, the HSE selected a new product supplier and a new product distributor in 2018. I understand from the HSE that the new contracts have involved a lot of changes in the range of products and their distribution. There have been some issues with the timely delivery of products under the new contract.

In 2018 the HSE put measures in place, including additional staff, an electronic management system and training of drivers to address initial difficulties. The HSE has informed my colleague, the Minister for Health, that it is continuing to work closely with the contracted delivery partners to ensure that the problems experienced by some service users in the community healthcare west region and other community healthcare organisation areas are addressed as a matter of priority.

A governance structure has been put in place to oversee the national contract for the supply and delivery of incontinence products in order to ensure the timely delivery of these products to eligible persons across all CHOs. This involves additional controls and monitoring measures in respect of the ordering and distribution of these products in each CHO. To support this process, additional administration staff have been put in place to carry out this work. The HSE is committed to ensuring these service improvements result in an enhanced and more efficient service for all.

Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply but we know that there is a new contract. The problem is that one long-term contract was being issued. Let us be clear that there has been a very good service for many years. We, as public representatives, did not hear anything to the contrary. In recent months, however, most Deputies have been getting phone calls on this issue. Will the Minister of State confirm that HSE personnel have been put in place in recent days to monitor the situation? Will he also confirm that the previous contract, under which one company was paid, has been split and that the company manufacturing the product must be paid directly? In addition, will he confirm that this matter will be resolved for those vulnerable people in the very near future? Will there be a long-term contract or what is going to happen? This short-term contract does not seem to be resolving matters. Is the Minister of State concerned that if a contract is changed twice, even a short-term one, there may be difficulties down the road?

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I cannot give Deputy Fitzmaurice any further details on the contract or on the subdivision to which he referred. The HSE acknowledges that this is an issue and that there have been challenges in the context of delivery. As is our obligation, a number of public representative have brought these issues to the House and to other fora to have it addressed. When the HSE was asked to respond, it acknowledged that there has been an issue and outlined the steps taken to address it. These include electronic control management and putting additional administrative staff in place to try to deal with the logistical issues that have arisen.

I have been assured by the HSE that it is confident it can manage this problem and resolve the issues that have arisen. The HSE wants the service to be of the standard expected and is working towards reaching that goal. It has promised to keep my Department informed of progress. I am happy to share that information with the Deputy. If he has any further concerns, he should feel free to come back to me. I would be more than happy to help. At this stage, however, I have to take the word of the HSE that it is doing everything it can to address these issues and I have to give it the opportunity to do so.