Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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746. To ask the Minister for Health the number of people on waiting lists for home support carers and funding in each month of 2022 and to date in 2023 for each LHO and CHO, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24216/23]

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.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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747. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the number of people on waiting lists for home support carers, by length of time waiting, by LHO and CHO; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24217/23]

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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748. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the number of people on waiting lists for home support funding, by length of time waiting, by LHO and CHO; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24218/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 747 and 748 together.

As these are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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749. To ask the Minister for Health the number of allocated home support hours that cannot be filled, by LHO and CHO; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24219/23]

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.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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750. To ask the Minister for Health the number of people who are currently experiencing a delay in discharge from hospital due to lack of, or delay in providing, home care or nursing home care; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24220/23]

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.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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751. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the cost and hours of home support delivered by non-Health Service Executive (HSE) providers paid by the HSE for 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24221/23]

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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752. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the cost and hours of home support provided directly by the HSE for 2021, 2022 and to date in 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24222/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 751 and 752 together.

As these are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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753. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the number of home support hours delivered nationally in 2022 and to date in 2023; the number of these delivered to new home support clients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24223/23]

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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754. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the number of people to whom home support was delivered nationally in 2022 and to date in 2023; the number of these who were new home support clients; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24224/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 753 and 754 together.

As these are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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755. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide an update regarding the tender for home support services; if a decision has been made on the tender content; if so, if he will provide details; if he anticipates a further extension of the current contract arrangements with home care providers; when he expects the new contract arrangements to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24225/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Government is committed to promoting care in the community for older people so that they can continue to live in their own homes for as long as possible. Home support is an increasingly important part of the supports we offer to older people and will continue to increase in importance into the future, as our ageing population grows.

The Home Support Service is funded by Government to deliver a volume of service each year as approved in the HSE National Service Plan which is subject to the annual estimates process. It is a non-statutory service and access to the current service is based on assessment of the person’s care needs by the HSE, having regard to the available resources and competing demands for services. Home Support services are provided by both directly employed Healthcare Support Assistants and Approved Providers with service arrangements with the HSE through the tender.

The 2018 Tender Framework for the provision of home support services was initially valid for the period 01 September 2018 to 31 December 2020. The HSE has extended the framework by two 12-month extensions, to 31 December 2022.

This was further extended by the HSE at the end of 2022, initially to the end of April 2023. The HSE has proposed a further extension of the contract arrangements to Friday 30th of June, to allow time to finalise tender arrangements. The process of developing the new tender is at an advanced stage. Officials in the Department of Health are engaging at a senior level with the HSE and the HSE has ongoing engagements with home care providers to progress the new tender. No final decisions on the tender content have been reached.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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756. To ask the Minister for Health the number of HSE health care support assistants nationally, by LHO and CHO; the number of such vacant posts, by LHO and CHO; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24226/23]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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As these are operational matters, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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757. To ask the Minister for Health the measures that have been taken to address employment issues in the home care/help sector to address home support shortages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24227/23]

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, Minister Butler established the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Advisory Group made 16 recommendations to address the challenges in frontline carer roles in the home support and long-term residential care 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.

Minister Butler has endorsed the Advisory Group’s recommendations. Implementation has commenced. The first recommendation no. 9 was implemented in December 2022 with the announcement of the authorisation of 1,000 employment permits for non-EU/EEA home support workers.

Implementation of the recommendations will be overseen by a cross departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health. The Department is engaging with recommendation owners to define an implementation plan.

A detailed implementation plan will be published containing steps involved in delivering the recommendations in the coming months. It is envisaged that the implementation group will meet quarterly and publish progress reports thereafter.