Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sure the Minister of State seeks no great introduction to this motion but while I do not often use tough language, inside or outside this Chamber, what has happened in respect of home help is nothing short of being scurrilous and is attacking people at the very coalface. On the one hand, Government policy suggests and advocates that in so far as possible, one should keep people at home rather than putting them into hospitals, homes or institutions, while on the other hand, the cutbacks that now have occurred are affecting in a very tough way the old, the vulnerable, the sick and the lonely. This is true in particular in HSE south, as according to the information I have, the impact appears to vary in different parts of Ireland. In many such instances, people's home help, sometimes available for two or three hours per week, has sustained them in their own homes. The home help calls in and might get such people up and out, get them washed, get them breakfast or whatever.

More than 30 people contacted me to express their deep concern that the cuts to their home help provision would compel them to eventually end up in nursing homes. The Minister of State is aware that the cost of keeping people in a nursing home or public hospital is very significant in comparison with keeping them in their own homes in their own environment. In this context, the few euro spent every week on home helps is a very small amount in comparison with what would be the cost to the State otherwise. As for the cutbacks, I attended a meeting at which one home help, who obviously would not go public, stated she had five half-hours with five different people in the west Cork area. Incidentally, it is another disgrace that home helps are not allowed to open their mouths for fear that they could lose their jobs, such is the contract into which they have entered with the HSE. The aforementioned person observed that the logistics of this allocation mean that as soon has she given someone a ring and perhaps boiled the kettle to make a cup of tea for the unfortunate elderly person, the half hour is up and she then is rushing from A to B to C. It is a ridiculous situation and some of the people I have met, who provide the home help, have never complained in the past. Their hours have been cut and obviously they are trying to make a living out of it, as it is a career for some of them. One must have a certain amount of compassion and training to become a home help and in this regard, the cutbacks are having an impact in the first instance on those for whom they are caring. These cuts make no sense when one considers the logistics and it is a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. In many instances, I am of the view that eventually, the elderly people who are dependent on the three, four or five hours per week - or whatever they are given - of home help, will be obliged, because of the lack of those few hours, to end up in homes. In some cases, this will cost the State a lot more than what currently is being paid to the home helps. I believe the situation is grave and these cutbacks should be rolled back. Given all the issues that can happen in the forthcoming budget, I note some Departments such as those responsible for social welfare and education and so on are being protected.

We are protecting some Departments, such as the Departments of Social Protection and Education and Skills. I am sure every decent person in government or elsewhere believes that protecting our old and vulnerable should be at the core but I do not believe that is happening. I am also very concerned that the cuts in some areas are far deeper and more severe. Last week in the other House, Deputy Denis Naughten said he got an answer under a freedom of information request stating that cuts in HSE south were the worst of all. In other words, the people in Cork county and city and in Kerry, who are complaining, have reason to do so because they have been targeted. The knife has entered more deeply into their system and the cuts have been far more severe than elsewhere. The Minister of State may have some good news for me. This is a very serious situation which needs to be addressed urgently.