Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. Ar dtús a Aire Stáit, ba mhaith liom fáilte mhór a chur romhat go dtí an Teach seo inniu.

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I would like to discuss the crisis in home care and home help in the HSE sector. Elderly people are suffering without home care because the HSE has frozen the provision of home care packages. No new hours have been allocated in the community health organisation or CHO 1 area since February of this year. There has been a complete shutdown. The CHO area includes many rural counties, among them counties Monaghan and Cavan. Almost 300 people await home care packages in Monaghan and Cavan. Some people have been approved for a home care package but they are waiting for one to be provided. Almost 50 people are on what is called a priority list, which means they have a high dependency. They have waited more than a year for a service. In most cases these people are elderly and very vulnerable so are in need of care and support.

This is a national disgrace. There is a crisis in the sector. We are letting down the very people who have given so much to our country and who are now in need of our care and support in their later years. The system is broken, it is not fit for purpose and it needs a root and branch review. As I am sure the Minister of State will agree, most people would like, where possible, to remain in their own homes among their families and communities but the present system does not allow them to do so. Many people go to great lengths to ensure their loved ones remain in their own homes. Most have young families themselves and are working yet they do all they can to ensure their loved ones remain at home but we, as a State, are letting them down. Every cent we spend on home care and home help is money well spent. Many millions of euro are spent throughout the health service but every penny spent on home care and home support for our elderly is one of the best investments we can make as a State. It makes no financial sense whatsoever to fail to do this because the net result will be that our elderly people will end up in nursing homes, or worse still due to a lack of care, in an acute hospital lying on trolleys waiting to be seen by medical staff.

Clearly, I do not use the word "crisis" in an exaggerated fashion because there is a serious problem that needs attention. There are 300 people in Cavan and Monaghan awaiting home care and money is needed for the service to be provided. I call on the Minister of State and the Government to allocate funding to assist and help those people to remain in their own homes where they would like to be.