Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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126. To ask the Minister for Health the assessments that have taken place into the extent of the inability of the HSE to provide home care hours to the level and duration recommended by its occupational therapists in respect of persons under the HSE's care; the basis on which a specific number of hours set down in an occupational therapist's report can be ignored by HSE staff organising home care; the extent of HIQA's role in relation to the assignment of home care hours; and the way in which to ensure that persons receive the number of hours of home care that have been recommended by occupational therapist staff. [19182/18]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Since being appointed as Minister with responsibility for Older People, I have made improved access to home support services a key priority. Progress in this area is reflected in the additional funding made available for winter 2017/2018, the increased funding and level of activity in 2018 and in the work being progressed on the development of a statutory home support scheme.

An additional €18.25m was allocated for home supports in Budget 2018. This brought the budget for the direct provision of home support services to €408m. The HSE’s 2018 National Service Plan provides for a target of some

- 17.094mhome support hours to be provided to 50,500 people, which compares with last year’s 16.34m hours delivered to 50,000 people (home help and home hours combined). This is an increase of 754,000 hours to 500 more people.

- 235intensive home care packages will provide 360,000home support hours for people with complex needs.

Following the recent adverse weather the HSE provided about 350 extra Home Support Packages across 13 specific hospitals over a five week period.

Despite this significant level of service provision, the demand for home support continues to grow. It is important to note that the allocation of funding for home supports across the system, though significant, is finite and services must therefore be delivered within the funding available. In addition, some Community Health Organisations are experiencing capacity issues due to lack of availability of home support staff. This is a particular problem in the Dublin region and other urban areas.

The HSE has begun work on streamlining home support services in 2018 by brining together the funding for home help and standard home care packages which now operate as a single home support service. This new approach will provide significant benefits including making the services easier to understand, streamlining the application and decision making processes, and facilitating service users to move to changed levels of services as their assessed needs change, without the need for an additional application.

Currently there is no statutory scheme for the regulation and financing of home supports, and HIQA has no role in relation to assigning these services. Services are provided on the basis of health-care needs as assessed by a health-care professional, and subject to the availability of resources.

As you are aware the Department of Health is currently engaged in a detailed process to develop plans for a new statutory scheme and system of regulation for home support services.

The statutory scheme for home supports will introduce clear rules in relation to the services for which individuals are eligible and in relation to service-allocation. For that reason, developing a new statutory scheme will be an important step in ensuring that the system operates in a consistent and fair manner for all those who need these services. It will also help to improve access to the services that people need in an affordable and sustainable way. The system of regulation for home supports will help to ensure that the public can be confident that the services provided are of a high standard.

Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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127. To ask the Minister for Health the status of a home care package for a person (details supplied) in order that they can return home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19189/18]

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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As this is a service matter I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond directly to the Deputy as soon as possible.