Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Addressing the shortage of care workers in Ireland is a priority for the Government.

To this end, the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group was established in March 2022 to examine, and formulate recommendations to address, the challenges in front-line carer roles in the home-support and long-term residential care sectors.

The group was chaired by the Department of Health and 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 HSE, HIQA and SOLAS.

The report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants was published on 15th October 2022. Providing an overview of the work of the 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 and sectoral reform.

Implementation of the 16 recommendations is underway and is being overseen by a cross departmental implementation group, chaired by the Department of Health. Recommendation 9 has been fully implemented. The statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,000 employment permits for homecare workers was signed on 16th December 2022. As recommended by the advisory group, these permits will be for full-time positions with a minimum salary of €27,000 per year. Work is underway on all recommendations with a further four at an advanced stage.

The Department is engaging with recommendation owners to finalise an implementation plan. A meeting of the implementation group took place on 29th June 2023. The implementation plan will be published in due course. It is envisaged that the implementation group will meet quarterly and publish progress reports thereafter.

Furthermore, state funded home support is delivered directly by the HSE and also by service providers in the community and voluntary, and private sectors. Services not provided directly by the HSE are procured through a tender. The process of finalising the new home support tender is at an advanced stage and it is expected to be in place in August. An increased rate has been secured and new arrangements will deliver significant sectoral reform incorporating travel time for home support workers, ensuring home support workers earn at a minimum the living wage and the reform of legacy rates, as recommended by the strategic workforce advisory group.