Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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192. To ask the Minister for Health the status of recommendation eight of the Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10505/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In order to examine the significant workforce challenges in the home support and nursing home sectors in Ireland, in March 2022 Minister Butler established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. The Advisory Group was charged with identifying strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided frontline carer roles in home support and nursing homes and with developing recommendations. The Group was chaired by the Department of Health, and its membership comprised representatives from seven government departments; (Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; Enterprise, Trade and Employment; Health; Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science; Justice; Public Expenditure and Reform; and Social Protection), the Health Service Executive (HSE), the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and SOLAS, to ensure adequate response to complex challenges faced by the sector.

The Group undertook a structured programme of stakeholder engagement to gain insight into the challenges arising from the perspective of key sectoral groups. The following are the stakeholders that contributed to the process to date, by way of written submissions, one on one meetings and a facilitated workshop: Age Friendly Ireland, Home & Community Care Ireland, Home Care Coalition, HSE, National Community Care Network, Nursing Homes Ireland, SIPTU and ICTU.

The Advisory Group examined issues such as the recruitment, retention, training, career development, pay and conditions and barriers to employment for frontline carers in these sectors. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations across the areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation. The report is available at this link:

www.gov.ie/en/publication/492bc-report-of-the-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing-home-health-care-assistants/.

Minister Butler strongly endorses these recommendations and they are being progressed through a dedicated implementation group. It is envisaged that the implementation group will meet quarterly and publish an implementation plan, and progress reports thereafter. 

Recommendation number 9 has already been implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16 December 2022.