Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1004. To ask the Minister for Children, Disability and Equality her plans, the timeline and estimated cost to deliver 800,000 additional personal assistance hours, and 110,000 additional home support hours respite services as promised in the action plan; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47569/25]

Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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The HSE provides a range of assisted living services including personal assistance (PA) and home support services to support individuals to maximise their capacity to live full and independent lives.

The Action Plan for Disability Services 2024-2026 commits to delivering 800,000 additional hours of PA and 110,000 additional hours of home support. The cost of delivering 800,000 additional hours of PA at the current rate of €31.47 per hour is €25,176,000, with the cost of delivering 110,000 additional hours of home support at €31.47 per hour being €3,461,700.

To support the fulfilment of these commitments, €2m was provided in 2024 for the delivery of 80,000 additional PA hours on 2023 with approximately 1.85m hours delivered to over 2,700 disabled persons in total last year. A further €3m was provided in Budget 2025 to deliver 95,000 additional hours, demonstrating DCEDIY’s ongoing investment in PA service provision.

Budget 2025 also provided approximately €1.3m in funding to support the delivery of 40,000 additional home support hours on 2024, with a target of 3.8m hours to be delivered by year end.

Further increases in service provision will be determined as part of the estimates process for Budget 2026.