Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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63. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for a systematic and sustained increase in the provision of home care for older persons. [20965/16]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The HSE’s National Service Plan for 2016 provides for a target of 10.4 million Home Help Hours to support about 47,800 people. It also provides for 15,450Home Care Packagesand130Intensive Home Care Packages for clients with complex needs. A further 60clients with dementia will be supported with co-funding from Atlantic Philanthropies under the Irish National Dementia Strategy.

Home support services across the country are being stretched by demands from more people, and for more hours at times outside of core hours, in the evenings and at weekends, all of which cost more. Activity in the first quarter of 2016 was ahead of the same period last year as efforts continued to alleviate pressure on the acute hospital system.

I am delighted that the Government has been able to respond to this demand by providing an extra €40m for home care in 2016. As a result, not only are we maintaining home care services at 2015 levels, but increasing them.

The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to increasing provision for home care in the years ahead. The planning and management of future health expenditure will be considered as part of the annual estimates and budgetary process which seeks to balance available funding across all of service areas to achieve the best possible outcomes for the greatest number of service users and prioritise areas of greatest need. I am confident that with continued economic growth, we will be able to further expand services to older people based on effective use of existing resources and additional funding.