Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 170: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the steps taken to ensure that quality of care will be properly monitored and audited in the new private sector venture for elderly people in their homes; the criteria whereby individuals will be entitled to a level of support from home care packages that part fund this scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6277/07]

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. The Health Service Executive provides over 11m hours of Home Help Hours per year with a budget in excess of €186m. A significant portion of the service is provided directly by Health Service Executive staff or voluntary organisations on behalf of the Health Service Executive. In some parts of the country where it has been necessary to engage private sector service providers to deliver services on behalf of the Health Service Executive this has been done through a tendering process. Where the Health Service Executive engages private sector providers to deliver Home Help or related services this is done on the basis of a Service Agreement which includes agreed standards of service and care to be provided. The Health Service Executive monitors the standard of care in line with the service contract.