Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 224: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children the reason no reply has been received from the parliamentary affairs division of the Health Service Executive for Question No. 163 of 18 October 2005 in view of the important financial and delivery of care to vulnerable patients issues that it alluded to; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3083/06]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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The HSE has informed me that it sent a reply to the Deputy yesterday on this matter. The information contained in the reply, which was provided to Deputy Kehoe in response to a parliamentary question on 22 November 2005, is that the 2004 figure of 8.9 million home help hours refers to projected figures for 2004. In some cases, owing to different recording mechanisms in different HSE areas, some home help figures also incorporated home help hours inclusive of all disciplines, including mental health, disabilities, children and families.

The 6.9 million home help hours figure in the 2005 national service plan section for older people, which referred to activity for last year and this year refer only to older persons and, therefore, that figure and the 8.9 million are not comparable. The HSE, on examining the figures in the national service plan 2005, realised that the 6.9 million was understated by 665,821 hours and the national figure should be more than 7.5 million for this year for older persons.

Given that there have been difficulties in collating information nationally, the necessary revisions are being made to systems and procedures by the HSE to ensure that routine information can be produced which verifies for the purposes of public accountability and management decision making the level of home help service delivered on an ongoing basis.