Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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580. To ask the Minister for Health the supports available to enable older people to age in place; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6561/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland’s population is ageing rapidly, and for the most part, our older population clearly indicates their preference to age in place, in their own homes, for as long as possible. One of the Government's key priorities, as outlined in the Programme for Government, is to support older people to live in dignity and independence in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. This is in line with the Sláintecare vision for receiving the right care, in the right place, and the right time.

The Government remains committed to supporting people to age in place at home in their community with access to wraparound supports, including day care and dementia-specific day care services, Meals on Wheels, and home care.

Improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. Since 2021 we have provided an additional €207 million in funding. In 2023 the overall homecare budget will be more than €700 million, with a target to deliver 23.67 million hours. The dementia-specific proportion of new home support hours will increase from 5% in 2021 to 15% in 2023, valued at €5.2 million. Delivering this enhanced capacity requires substantial recruitment and strategic workforce challenges are in evidence in the sector.

The Government has published the findings of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants. The Group made 16 recommendations spanning the areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation. Implementation of the findings has begun and from January 2023 and 1,000 General Employment Permits are now available for home support workers. As recommended by the Advisory Group, this will enable the employment within Ireland of non-EU/EEA citizens as home support workers.

We are also pursuing a significant reform programme for home care, which will see the introduction of a regulatory framework for the first time, and which will deliver equitable access to high-quality services based on a person’s assessed care needs. This will comprise primary legislation for the licensing of providers, secondary legislation in the form of regulations and HIQA national standards.

In 2021, the HSE commenced the implementation of the Enhanced Community Care (ECC) Programme which aims to deliver increased levels of healthcare with service delivery reoriented towards general practice, primary care, and community-based services. The ECC programme will ensure maximum impact for citizens in avoiding hospital admission as far as possible through initiatives that will see care delivered within the community, at or near a person’s home, where appropriate.

The National Integrated Care Programme for Older Persons (ICPOP) forms part of the ECC Programme and seeks to ensure older people with complex care needs can access care quickly, at or near home, through care pathways specifically designed for older people and targeting Frailty, Falls, and Dementia. As of the end of 2022, 21 of the proposed 30 Community Specialist Teams for Older Persons have been established. Recruitment to the teams is ongoing, with the HSE targeting implementation of the full 30 teams by end Q2 2023. HSE and ALONE Support Coordination Service.

The Healthy Age Friendly Homes Programme is an innovative partnership between the local government sector (through Age Friendly Ireland) and Sláintecare in the Department of Health that commenced at the beginning of 2021 and saw the introduction of a new person-centric, robust, support coordination service. The overall objectives of the programme are to prevent early or premature admission to long term residential care; enable older people to continue living in their homes or in a home more suited to their needs; help older people to live with a sense of independence and autonomy and support older people to be and feel part of their communities.

The interim report of phase 1 of the Healthy Age Friendly Homes programme was published in June last year and details the significant progress of the programme over its first 12 months pilot phase. In 2022, 3,691 supports were provided through this programme in the areas of health, housing, community/social supports, and technology. I was pleased to announce in Budget 2023 that funding of €5.2 million has been allocated to roll-out the initiative nationally. Age Friendly Ireland will deliver this programme in partnership with Sláintecare.

In 2023 the overall funding available to the HSE for Older Persons will exceed €2.4 billion. This includes nearly €1.1 billion for Fair Deal. I am committed to the development of improved community and home-based services, shifting care to closer to home and offering greater choice for older people. This year a wide range of core services will be provided for older persons including home support, day care, dementia day care, and meals on wheels in partnership with voluntary groups. There are over 2,000 voluntary organisations that receive funding from the HSE, spanning almost all areas of health and social care. These services operate alongside intermediate care options such as respite and convalescent care as well as long-stay residential care when remaining at home is no longer feasible.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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581. To ask the Minister for Health the services available to older people, excepting daycare services, that have yet to return having being suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6562/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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582. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to update the National Positive Ageing Strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6564/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Government is committed to supporting healthy and positive ageing as well as to ensuring that older persons can continue to live independently in their homes and communities for as long as possible. At present, this objective is supported by the National Positive Ageing Strategy(2013), which, as a blueprint for whole of government policy making and service delivery in partnership with the community and voluntary sector, retains its broad relevance.

Acknowledging the disproportionately negative impact of the pandemic on older persons, the Programme for Government: Our Shared Future(2020) commits to the establishment of a commission on care that will ‘assess how we care for older people and examine alternatives to meet the diverse needs of our older citizens’, learning the lessons from COVID 19.

In 2022 preliminary desk research was undertaken within the Department of Health in preparation for the establishment of a commission on care. In 2023 the scoping and planning for the commission will be further advanced as a priority. Accordingly, the commission's scope has yet to be determined. However, it is envisaged that it will support a whole of government examination of the plethora of existing policies and strategies which are of relevance to supporting healthy and positive ageing, and make recommendations to effectively address gaps which currently exist in this domain in the policy landscape.