Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for outlining the business for today. I raise an issue raised a number of times. However, it is important we continue to highlight it on foot of a debate yesterday in the Lower House and, indeed, this being national carers' week, which commenced on 10 June. Yesterday during Leaders' Questions the Taoiseach stated that an extra €30 million is being budgeted for help and home care this year. He said it would provide 18.3 million hours in home support, an increase of 800,000 on last year. A company called Tyco is involved and home help staff are now being paid for travelling time. That fact has only come to his attention and he is still trying to get to the bottom of the matter. It seems much of the money is being swallowed up. I think the HSE rate is €13.50 an hour while the Tyco rate is €23.50 an hour. We are not really getting a lot of value for this extra money. It would seem to be rather inefficient.

Councillor Martin Baker and Councillor Michael Clarke of Sligo County Council have highlighted the fact that some people have been given lists of private contractors that they can hire themselves if they want. It is a bit insulting that people are not given the help they require. It is important we appreciate that people who remain at home save the State enormous amounts of money by not being in institutions, whether old people's homes, respite care facilities or hospitals. Home care costs a fraction of the cost of residing in an institution.

It does not look good for the Minister for Health or the Taoiseach to say we are spending all this extra money but there is no great value being delivered, the price is twice as high, and the extra provision does not cover much more. The people who need the care are experiencing huge delays and as many as 6,000 people await home care support. I ask the Leader to bring in the Minister for Health so that he can explain to us what is going on with home care.

The Leader might ask the Minister for Health to come in, perhaps on a separate occasion, to discuss an article by Pat Leahy in The Irish Timestoday. He said that we are going to need another bailout of several hundred million euro before the end of the year to deal with another health overrun. It was said that a 6% increased had already been factored in for this year but it is now 9%. Effectively, that is a 50% increase on expected health spending even though a fairly substantial increase had been forecasted. The rate of the spending increase in May was a third ahead of the anticipated growth for the year. Since 2010, as many as 20 of the 23 major capital projects in health have ended up costing more than the agreed price.It is concerning that 90% of the capital projects in health are coming in over budget. This is public money and it is important to note that moneys spent when they could have been saved cannot then be better spent somewhere else, whether in health, housing or any of the other areas on which we need to spend and invest wisely. The topic this morning is the home help service in the context of capital project overruns and the general overrun in the health budget. I would like the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, to come to the House as soon as possible to debate those matters.