Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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1492. To ask the Minister for Health if his attention has been drawn to the fact that at the end of March 2022 over 5,458 persons nationally have been assessed by the HSE as needing HSE funded homecare and for whom no carer is available; and if he will engage with homecare providers to ensure a practical solution is provided for this shortage. [29428/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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In Budget 2021 I secured additional funding of €150 million for home support to progress the development of a reformed model of service delivery to underpin the statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support services and to provide 5 million additional hours of home support. This funding has been maintained into 2022. Delivering this enhanced capacity requires substantial recruitment. This has been affected due to the strategic workforce challenges in the home support sector. I have established an Advisory Group to identify the specific obstacles to recruiting carers and make recommendations by this September.

Significant inroads have been achieved in reducing waiting lists for funding approval for new or additional service from over 7,800 in January 2020 to 286 in March 2022. This has been achieved through a combination of validation of the waiting list and availability of additional funding to address those waiting. However, there can be a lag between funding approval and the actual delivery of home support hours. Certain geographical areas that are experiencing increased pressures due to staff availability are particularly affected. At the end of March there were 5,458 people assessed and waiting for a carer to become available. In January 2020, there was about 1,300 people in this category. Despite the increase, it is important to note that the total number of people waiting for home support across both categories has reduced from over 9,000 at the start of 2020 to 5,744 at the end of March.

The HSE continues to advertise on an on-going basis throughout the region for Health Care Support Assistants and to recruit as many suitable candidates as possible. Due to the nature of the role, this recruitment is normally conducted at a very local level.