Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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200. To ask the Minister for Health if funding provision for intensive home care packages, IHCPs, will be increased; if the funding structure for IHCPs will be amended in order that they are provided on a needs basis and not limited by budgetary restrictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6539/18]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to promoting care in the community so that people can continue to live with confidence, security and dignity in their own homes for as long as possible. To support this, we plan to establish a new statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home care services. The Department is currently engaged in a detailed process to progress this.

In the meantime, the Department and HSE are continuing efforts to incrementally improve the existing services. As detailed in its National Service Plan,the HSE is streamlining home care services by moving towards a single funded service. This combines the funding for home help and standard home care packages which will operate as a single home support service from 2018 onwards.

Home support services are a particular area of focus in Budget 2018, with an additional €18.25m allocated. The additional resources bring the budget for the direct provision of home support services to €408m delivering over 17m home support hours to about 50,500 people. This compares with the estimated 16.34m hours delivered to 50,000 people last year. In addition, 235 intensive home care packages will provide 360,000 home support hours for people with complex needs.

Despite this significant level of service provision, the demand for Home Care continues to grow. It is important to note that the allocation of funding for home care across the system, though significant, is finite and services must therefore be delivered within the funding available. Home care is monitored on an on-going basis, to ensure that activity is maximised relative to individual clients’ assessed care needs and within the overall available resources for home care and having regard to demand throughout the year.