David Norris (Independent)

Many speakers have referred to vulnerable people, such as the elderly and carers. I gave the House a warning a long time ago about the systematic crippling of State agencies that are charged with protecting the vulnerable. I will continue to use the Seanad to highlight such cases.

I was contacted some time ago by a woman who is concerned about her 87 year old sister, who has intermittent dementia. She is part of the home care package. The home care package is a scandal. It is a very good idea, but it is badly applied. Some €700 is made available to families that require carers. It is paid directly to private agencies that are not regulated in any way. This leads to very inappropriate situations. There are discrepancies between the various charges that are applied after the €700 is provided. I am aware of a family that, over a short period of time, had to pay between €84 and €450 in additional fees. The service is extremely poor. Those providing it often do not have basic functional English. They have no training whatever.

This was confirmed in an excellent article by Eilish O'Regan in the Irish Independent. The article mentioned that the HSE spends €120 million on this system each year. It quoted from a report published by the National Economic and Social Forum which suggested that care workers are sent into people's homes without being the subject of Garda checks. When the HSE confirmed that is the case, it said that such matters are the responsibility of the agencies. No, it is not. Carers are completely untrained. No training is given. Private companies have acknowledged that they have never been inspected by the HSE. There is poor or no supervision of staff. Complaints just disappear. Some staff refuse to do tasks that are required by their patients. When one woman was called on to collect the pension of an Alzheimer's patient, she asked for €25 in petrol money. A 78 year old had to be hospitalised because her carer was unable to give her the appropriate medication.

This situation could lead to further scandals like that at Leas Cross nursing home. I am asking for something to be done about it. Guidelines were agreed by some of the private home care people but they were not signed off by the HSE. What is the HSE doing? Dr. Maureen Gaffney has said that there is poor accountability and slow decision making. I agree with her that the connection between national policy decision making and local work practices is poor. I ask the Leader to get the Minister to do something clearly, directly and specifically about this matter.