Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 November 2022
86. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment his plans to remove home care workers from the Ineligible Occupations List, following publication of the Report of the Strategic Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants which recommended doing so; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55113/22]
View answerThe cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group was established by the Minister of State for Mental Health and Older People, Mary Butler, 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 Group, which was chaired by the Department of Health, comprised representatives from several government departments and agencies, including my Department and the Report of the Group was published on 15 October.
The Report includes 16 recommendations spanning the areas of recruitment, pay and conditions of employment, barriers to employment, training and professional development, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation.
It recommends that home-support workers should be made eligible for an Employment Permit.
To this end, my officials and I will work with counterparts at the Department of Health on the regulations necessary to give effect to this recommendation as soon as is possible.
