Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank her for dealing with this matter. The question I raise is in regard to homecare providers. A presentation was given recently to a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health that I chaired on 29 May last at which homecare providers advised that they are finding it difficult to recruit people because of full employment and the fact that people now have jobs and are working full time. There is a cohort of people who are prepared to provide homecare for three hours per day but the problem is that if they do so five days a week, they are precluded from claiming a social welfare allowance of any description. One proposal is that the calculation be based on the number of hours worked rather than the number of days. For example, a person working three hours a day, five days a week would amass a total of 15 hours. That is the proposal and amendment which people are now seeking.

We will need between 10,000 and 15,000 additional homecare providers in this country over the next few years. As the Minister of State is aware, the number of people aged over 65 will increase from its current level of 637,000 to more than 1 million over the next ten years. We want to keep more people out of hospitals and nursing homes and the only way to do that is through the provision of adequate homecare services. Such homecare services can be provided by people who are prepared to work part time. It is in that context that I set out my proposal that a person be permitted to work for three hours a day, five days a week without losing all of his or her social welfare allowance as he or she would under the current system whereas a person who works for two days a week is still able to get his or her social welfare allowance for three days a week. The Department should take that proposal on board in planning the social welfare requirements in the coming budget and it should be given very serious consideration at this stage.