Results 6,501-6,520 of 7,823 for speaker:Jim Daly

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: First, there is no freeze in the allocation of home help hours. In my CHO which covers counties Cork and Kerry 1,200 additional hours are being allocated month on month. I hear this confirmed by every other CHO leader or manager. My understanding from the HSE nationally is that there is absolutely no freeze. I do not know how many times I can say it. A number of Members have said there...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The Deputy will have his chance. He can roar away at me all he likes. Why is he roaring?

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: If the House does not want to hear what I have to say, I will sit down and Members can talk away.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: Deputies either want to hear or they do not. I have as much a vested interest in getting this right as anybody else in this House and I have as much desire to do so. I am a practising politician on the ground who has the same experience as everybody else in this Chamber. I am here in a collaborative spirit. I will give the Deputy what information I can and I am open to suggestions and...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I wish to be fair to the Deputy. I did not answer her question.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: On Deputy O'Reilly's question about the allocation of hours,140,000 additional hours have been allocated in the first three or four months of the year. There is a target of 800,000 additional hours for the entire year. It is up to the HSE to decide how to allocate and decide where it will prioritise allocation. Obviously, there would be the optimum allocation for the winter months. The...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: On the first question, the Deputy said 242,000 hours were allocated in the first few months of the year. There are 800,000 for the entire year. If there were to be a freeze until November, as everybody is trying to suggest, there would be an unmerciful drive to try to allocate 500,000 home help hours between November and December. What the Deputy is saying does not make any sense. There...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I am sorry, but I would prefer if the Deputy did not put words in my mouth.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I am happy to do so, but I do not want to be misquoted.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The opposite argument is made about residential care. Some 80% of those in residential care are minded in private nursing homes. They argue that they achieve far better value for money than the HSE. There will be a report making its way to my desk on that very issue very shortly. One could argue the toss all day on the issue of public versus private, but the HSE will use private staff...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I could not agree with any contribution from any Deputy more than I agree with that last contribution. That is, of course, why we want the delivery of a statutory home care scheme underpinned by statute and guaranteed. That is why I have undertaken that project which began two years ago. As I said previously, it took nine years to bring the fair deal scheme from concept to reality. I have...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The Deputy has rightly pointed out that much of that is not in my area. We have obviously identified that, in our ambition to have a statutory scheme, the only way that one can attract the quality and supply of staff required is to ensure that there are good conditions attaching to it, good standards and protections for staff. That has all been readily identified in our approach to...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I am happy to accept the Deputy's request that I put that forward at budget time. I want to hit one nail on the head. There can be no comparison, as has been made, between the €240 per week for home care, €1,200 per week for a nursing home and €7,000 per week for an acute hospital bed. It does not make any sense and I am surprised at some of the Deputies who have...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: The decision on the operation of the scheme was made by the HSE. The HSE has, since its inception, always been subject to a budget cap and had to maintain delivery of its services within the budget available. There has been no new decision made or any change of policy. I have not instructed or been involved in any change whatsoever. I allocated the HSE funding for 18 million hours to be...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I was not aware of the Deputy's past connection with this industry. I thank him for sharing that and I appreciate his insights. We have commissioned a major review of the current home help service with a view to nailing down and identifying flaws in areas such as operations, funding, delivery of service and geographical disparity so as to inform the new scheme. Much of that information...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: A co-payment does not involve charging for home help hours. Rather, it is the case that those who can afford to make a contribution based on their means will do so in a manner similar to how the fair deal scheme is currently processed.

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: That is essentially a management issue. A system must be put in place to regulate it. I agree that it must be very annoying for those delivering the service to only be able to get 12 hours if they want to do more. It is possible that there may be three or four home helps in a small area and a limited number of hours in that area, whereas in a more built-up area there may be more hours...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: No, I do not agree. I would not stand over a system that would allow a person to linger in a bed just to avoid it being taken by another patient. There is a cost to the State in terms of pounds, shillings, and pence, but there is a far bigger potential cost in the context of a person's health if he or she is not treated in a timely manner. We must consider our duty of care. To be fair to...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: I set up a group within the HSE, chaired by Mr. Graham Knowles, to examine the position regarding delayed discharges and I commissioned an independent report on the matter last year. This is a very interesting matter around which we are trying to get our heads because it cuts across the community and acute sectors. We are trying to ensure that timely discharges are a fact of life and trying...

Home Help Service Provision: Statements (12 Jun 2019)

Jim Daly: Depending on the level of acuity, it may take some time to put a package together. It may be necessary to get two or three home helps into a house. The package must be put together. One cannot just flick a switch and make a home help package available at short notice. Obviously, there are also funding implications. There are many other issues which affect delayed discharges, such as...