Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the passing of the children's rights referendum. We all have many lessons to learn from the referendum. The low turnout was, whether we like it, an indictment of the political system and how all of us in all parties and none - I will not apportion blame - worked towards the referendum. The result was not a resounding "Yes" but I still firmly believe the changes to be brought forward in the Constitution will be important to protect children. When the dust settles the House should examine and debate in a calm and clear way the advice the Attorney General gave the Government on the publication of the Government's booklet to ensure we do not make again the mistakes we made in this referendum. I believe the turnout was low for various reasons and I will not apportion blame in any way, shape or form. We must look back and wonder why only 32% of our people voted in the referendum. We must look with a critical cold eye at what we can do differently and how we can represent and present a referendum in future.

I wish to follow up on several issues which I have raised on a number of occasions. The Minister for Health will come to the House this afternoon, and I am sure our health spokesperson will also raise this matter with him. Where stand the cuts to home help with regard to the 950,000 hours which have been taken out of the system this year? A cut of 450,000 home help hours was signed off by the Minister in mid-October for a paltry ¤8 million saving. All of us receive letters, telephone calls and e-mails from families about home help hours being arbitrarily cut.

I asked Senator Bacik if she had raised the issue with the Minister for Health last week and she said that she had. I am sure Fine Gael Senators have also raised the issue with him. I have written to him as many of my colleagues in Fianna Fáil have done. Will the cuts stand or will the Government reverse what I am sure we all agree, if we leave politics at the door, are the most unfair and unjust cuts to people who badly need assistance and want to be cared for at home? The financial argument for the cuts simply does not stand up. The less care people receive in their homes will mean that more of them, mainly elderly people, will end up in hospitals. They do not want to be there. They do not want to be cared for in hospitals and we all know this.

Will the Government reverse the cut of 950,000 hours introduced this year? I remind Senators that, on page 38 of the programme for Government, Fine Gael and the Labour Party signed up to not only maintaining home help, carers' allowances and home care packages, but to increasing them. Savage cuts have been made in the sector that affect people throughout the 26 counties of the Republic of Ireland. I believe the Minister will take the opportunity today to clarify once and for all whether he will proceed with the cuts and whether he will admit that a mistake has been made and decide to reverse these utterly unjust cuts.