Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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70. To ask the Minister for Health the way in which the number of elderly persons that can be cared for in their own homes through the provision of increased home care packages will be increased; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28305/18]

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. 

The Health Service Capacity Review 2018, published in January, outlines projections of demand and capacity requirements for a range of health services to 2031. As our population, particularly our older population continues to grow, key projections from the analysis indicate, for the period 2016-2021

- 12% growth in overall population;

- 59% growth in 65+ population; and

- 95% growth in 85+ population.

The review notes that if key reforms and productivity measures are implemented, a 120% increase in home supports will be required by 2031.

While the new home care scheme is under development, the Department of Health and HSE are continuing to incrementally improve the existing services and meet the growing demand for home support services. The HSE has begun streamlining services in 2018 by bringing 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 service as their assessed needs change, without the need for an additional application process.

Additional funding of €112 million has been provided for home support services over the past three years. Home support services were a particular area of focus in Budget 2018, with an additional €18.25 million allocated. As a result, 2018 has seen a further increase in the provision of home support services. The HSE’s National Service Plan provides for a target of just over 17 million home support hours to be provided to 50,500 people. This represents an increase of 754,000 hours and home support for 500 more people over last year.  In addition, 235 intensive home care packages will provide 360,000 home support hours for people with complex needs.  Earlier this year, due to the adverse winter weather, a further initiative saw an additional 324 people being provided with home support services.

The Programme for Government committed to increasing funding for Home Care Packages and Home Help every year. 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 the various service areas to achieve the best possible outcomes for the greatest number of service users and prioritise areas of greatest need.