Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Clonan for raising this matter. It is my first time taking one of his Commencement matters. I am delighted to do so. We will meet again at 5 p.m. to discuss the Shona Project, so we will speak twice in one day.

The HSE provides a range of assisted living services, including personal assistance, to support individuals in maximising their capacity to live full and independent lives. The HSE National Service Plan 2022 outlined the HSE's commitment to deliver 1.7 million hours of personal assistance services to 2,587 people. This reflected an additional 120,000 hours of personal assistance services in 2022 to expand and enhance supports for people to live self-directed lives in their own communities. The most up-to-date statistics on the delivery of personal assistance shows that service remained steady during quarter 3 of 2022 and was above target by 4.4%. However, the Senator is correct, in that there are ongoing challenges in recruiting staff for disability services and the delivery of personal assistance services. These challenges are being experienced across a range of disciplines and grades in all areas of the health services, including primary care, mental health services, older person services and acute hospitals.

I wish to outline what I did last year with the provision of home care, specifically for older people but also for people with disabilities, mental health issues, etc. I was in an unenviable position as Minister of State, in that, despite having a full budget to provide all the hours we needed - €660 million - last year and an increase to €700 million this year, we had a shortage of staff. Some 56,000 people will receive home care today. Unfortunately, 3,200 people are waiting for home care. It has been funded but we do not have the staff to deliver it. Some 2,900 people have partial as opposed to full care packages.

I put in place a strategic workforce advisory group. It worked with my departmental officials. We engaged with all Departments and stakeholders across the public, private and voluntary sectors. There were 16 recommendations, all of which I took on board. I will set out some of the key ones.

A key recommendation was that we look outside the EU and secure work permits in that regard. On 1 January, 1,000 work permits went live for people living outside the EU to work in Ireland as healthcare workers providing home care. We know this approach works because we took it previously in respect of nursing homes. To date, 2,640 people from outside the EU have come to Ireland on permits to work in the nursing home sector.

Another recommendation relates to a point raised by the Senator. The HSE pays a rate of between €30 and €35 per hour to organisations that supply personal assistance hours, yet the worker only gets €11 or €12. The same situation obtains in home care for older people. One of the key recommendations was that, under the new tender being put in place with the HSE from 1 April to provide home care hours, the person providing the hours through a private company would have to be paid the living wage.That is the recommendation.