Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail)
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21. To ask the Minister for Health the number of home support hours that will be provided for older people in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61353/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. Since 2021 we have provided an additional €207 million in funding.  Next year the overall homecare budget will be more than €700 million.  

In 2022 the HSE’s National Service Plan provides for the overall delivery of over 24 million hours of home support nationally by year end. This includes 23.67 million hours of home support, a further 360,000 hours to be provided from Intensive Homecare Packages and 170,400 hours provided for the testing of the proposed Statutory Home support Scheme.   

The latest available reported activity, which is preliminary, reflects the period to end of October 2022. As of this date, 17.56 million hours were delivered nationally to 56,210 people this year.  This represents a 4% increase in service delivery compared to the same period last year. Also, as of this date, some 71,665 people have benefitted from a Home Support service so far this year.   

The HSE has formally submitted the National Service Plan 2023 to my colleague Minister Donnelly for his approval.  Once the Plan is approved, it must be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas within 21 days of its approval. Once the Service Plan has been laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas, the HSE will ensure it is published at the earliest possible time.