Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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1682. To ask the Minister for Health if he intends to implement all 16 recommendations of the workforce advisory group on home carers and nursing home health care assistants in 2023; if he will provide a timeline for the implementation of each recommendation; the progress that has been made to date in implementing these recommendations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2181/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistantswas published on 15th October 2022. Providing an overview of the work of the Advisory Group and its key findings, the report presents a suite of 16 recommendations spanning the areas of areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation.

I have strongly endorsed all of the Advisory Group’s recommendations and I am committed to their full implementation as a priority. Implementation of the recommendations will be overseen by a cross-departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health, which will provide timelines for the implementation of each recommendation as soon as possible.

I can confirm that implementation of the recommendations is in train and that on the 16th December 2022 the Government announced the authorisation of 1,000 employment permits for non-EU/EEA home support workers, as recommended by the Advisory Group. This promises to significantly reduce the shortage of home support workers in the immediate future.

The Advisory Group’s recommendations are targeted measures which, when implemented in conjunction with the wider sectoral reforms which are in train, will have a lasting impact on the workforce challenges associated with frontline care workers.