Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend all involved in the Daffodil Day fundraiser this morning and I hope everybody can support Daffodil Day tomorrow. As we know, the Irish Cancer Society provides huge support to families and people with cancer. I commend Averil Power and her team on the work they do.

Today is also an auspicious day. In the audiovisual room we saw the launch of the home care providers alliance. For the first time all the carers organisations have come together to form an alliance. I ask the Acting Leader to facilitate a debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on carers and on the need for the State to support the work of family carers. It is extraordinary that today, for the first time, we have had a coming together of the different groups to form this alliance. I welcome the launch, I commend our former colleague in the Seanad, Deputy Colm Burke, on facilitating that and I welcome the involvement of Tony O’Brien, the former CEO of the HSE, and of the former Minister of State, Jim Daly, as part of the alliance. We have 4,787 people waiting for home care packages. That is far too many by any stretch of the imagination. We have people waiting to be cared for and to avail of a home care package. All of us want to see people looked after in their homes. Jim Daly told us this morning that the UK National Health Service, NHS, is trialling hospital beds being brought into people’s homes so that people can be looked after in the comfort and privacy of their homes. I ask that the Acting Leader facilitate a debate with the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, on carers and home care packages as a matter of urgency.