Written answers

Tuesday, 15 October 2019

Photo of John CurranJohn Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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433. To ask the Minister for Health the provision that will be made for home support services for the elderly in 2020 recognising the significant difficulty many persons experienced in securing home support services in 2019 arising from a very significant increase in health funding as announced in budget 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42102/19]

Photo of Jim DalyJim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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The Government has made improved access to home support services a priority. We have committed to an additional investment of €52 million in Budget 2020 to bring the total funding for home supports to €487 million in 2020.

In 2020 the HSE will deliver over 19.2 million hours of home support, representing a substantial increase of 1 million hours more than this year’s target.

This investment is focused on enabling older people to remain at home and, as appropriate, provision of hours will also be targeted at times of peak demand in Winter 2020, at the beginning and end of the year, to ensure more timely egress from hospital for our older citizens.

While the existing home support service is delivering crucial support to many people across the country, it needs to be improved to better meet the changing needs of our citizens. Dedicated funding has been included within the €52m for the testing of the new statutory home-support scheme in 2020.

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