The National Council on Ageing and Older People published a report, The Future Organisation of the Home Help Service in Ireland, in 1998. There has been a major step forward in the implementation of the home help scheme since 1999, in terms of the amount of service delivered and the treatment of the home help providers. The time when home help providers worked for a pittance is long gone. Over €30 million has been injected into the system to ensure that home help providers receive a decent level of pay and other entitlements, such as holidays and sick leave. An additional €7 million has been made available to the health boards to increase the availability of the home help service by employing more home help providers or by increasing the number of hours worked by existing providers.
The percentage expenditure increase on the home help service in 2003, compared with 2000, in each health board area, is as follows: ERHA, 45.74%; NEHB, 107.05%; NWHB, 153.13%; MHB, 147.81%; MWHB, 131.62%; SEHB, 155.07%; SHB, 154.47%; WHB, 122.98%. The total increase in expenditure on the home help service across all health board areas since 2000 is 113.59%. The fact that the current overall economic position has had implications for all aspects of public investment is reflected in the Estimates and the budget adopted by the Government for 2003. Some two thirds of the additional funding available for non-capital investment in services has been allocated to the health services within this overall framework. This funding is being applied largely to maintaining existing levels of service across all service programmes, including the home help service.