Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, who cannot be here this morning. I acknowledge and welcome the debate in the Dáil last night. I was there for some of it. I know there was support from every corner of the Dáil. I do not know if the statement I am about to read will provide the Senator with additional information. I will read it in any event.

We all share the common objectives of improving quality of life for our older citizens. This Government continues to strive to ensure that initiatives are put in place to provide older people with the type of care they need and that such care is delivered in the right place and in a timely manner. The home support service is a core service for older people and is highly valued by service users, their families and the HSE. The service provides supports which assist older people to live independently in their own homes for longer. It enables large numbers of people to return home following acute hospital admission who otherwise would remain in hospital or would be admitted to long-stay residential care. This allows care to be provided in the community, which is a key principle of the vision of and implementation of Sláintecare. There has been sustained significant investment in these services in recent years. As a result, the home support budget has increased from a base of €306 million in 2015 to almost €420 million in 2018. Continued investment in home support is be a key consideration of the service planning process. Overall, the 2018 HSE national service plan provided over 17 million home support hours to be delivered to 50,500 people at any time. In addition, a further 156,000 hours, relating to adverse weather funding, were provided from spring 2018. Intensive home care packages will be delivered to approximately 235 people at any time and will deliver approximately a further 360,000 hours in the full year.

Despite this significant level of service provision, demand continues to rise. All those waiting are assessed and provided with a service, if appropriate, as soon as possible and having regard to their assessed needs. People being discharged from acute hospitals who are in a position to return home with supports are prioritised. At the end of September, preliminary figures indicate that there were 6,423 people approved for either new or additional home care supports who were waiting for funding to be available. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has overseen investment in other areas of community supports such as in the availability of transitional beds aimed at reducing the need for older people to stay in hospital while awaiting long-term care packages such as home support or fair deal funding to be finalised. Transitional care also facilitates a cohort of patients who require further convalescence care but do not need to remain in acute hospitals. The number of approved transitional care beds has increased year on year and the availability of these beds is an important community-based support year-round, particularly during the winter. Following the recent budget announcement, the HSE and officials from the Department of Health are in the process of developing and agreeing the HSE national service plan 2019, which will set out, in detail, the type and quantum of services to be delivered in 2019 including services for older people.

The Senator's concerns included the 228 people in Donegal waiting to be assessed for or provided with a home care package. I will raise that with the Minister in question. We all want to make sure that older people and not-so-old people who would like to live in their communities get the care to be able to. The Minister is doing everything possible. With the continued development and agreement of the HSE national service plan for 2019, we hope that more funding will be made available. I will come back to the Senator after his next contribution.