Violet-Anne Wynne
Question:562. Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne asked the Minister for Health his plans to address the shortage of HSE home care provision in County Clare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60329/22]
View answerTuesday, 6 December 2022
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Written answers
Addressing the shortage of care workers in Ireland is an urgent priority for the Government. To this end, I established the cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group in March 2022 to examine, and formulate recommendations to address, the challenges in frontline carer roles in the home support and long-term residential care sectors. Working closely with key stakeholders, the Group examined the recruitment, retention, training, career development, and pay and conditions of care workers. The Report of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants was published on 15 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, sectoral reform, and monitoring and implementation. I strongly endorse all of the Group's recommendations and can confirm that work towards their implementation has commenced. I will be closely monitoring this implementation on an on-going basis to ensure that the recommendations are enacted in a full and timely manner.
On the 30 November, Minister English and I announced that 1,000 General Employment Permits will be made available for home support workers from January 2023. As recommended by the Advisory Group, these permits will be for full-time positions with a minimum salary of €27,000 per year and a stipulated minimum continuous shift-length of four hours per working day. A 2 year contract of employment with a Home Care Provider is part of the permit requirement.
As this is an operational matter, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the deputy directly, as soon as possible.