Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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343. To ask the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 211 of 22 October 2025, to confirm if the strategic workforce implementation group has been stood down; if a new strategic workforce advisory group has been established to work on a new report for the next phase of reform; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [66626/25]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The cross departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group was established in March 2022. The Group was charged with examining strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided front line carer roles in home support and nursing homes and with making recommendations to address these.

The Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Health Care Assistants was published in October 2022. It presented a suite of 16 recommendations, to be overseen by an implementation group, chaired by the Department of Health. The implementation Group met a total of six times, including a meeting in October 2024.

As a result of the implementation of the Group’s recommendations, significant reform has been delivered. A new HSE home support tender has been in place since August 2023. This delivers on commitments for sectoral reform such as payment for travel time for home support providers and paying carers the National Living Wage at a minimum. Additionally, each year since the establishment of the SWAG record number of hours of home support have been achieved.

There has been a range of developments since the establishment of the SWAG. These include the publication of the ESRI’s report on national future capacity requirements in older people’s care in June together with regional projections published in November, the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment’s recent public consultation on the review of occupations lists for employment permits, and Quality and Qualifications Ireland’s recent public consultation to inform new draft Awards Standards for Healthcare at NFQ Level 5.

In light of these developments, and their effect on the ongoing implementation of the Group’s recommendations, the Department is reviewing the existing recommendations. In doing so, due consideration will be given to the development of an approach to the next phase of reform to address workforce challenges in the sector.

In collaboration with the Institute of Public Health, the Department of Health has developed a National Survey of the Experience of Home Support Workers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants. The survey seeks to gain insights into the experiences of front-line carers in home support and residential care across public, private and not-for-profit organisations. This will inform both the Department's understanding of how SWAG’s recommendations have impacted the carer workforce and future developments in addressing workforce challenges.

Once the survey outputs have been collated, my Department will work with the SWAG to produce a final report. It is envisaged that this report will include further, updated recommendations regarding the carer workforce in the context of progress already achieved and ongoing developments as outlined.