The matter I would wish to raise on the Adjournment is closely related to what Deputy Flaherty is raising. It is almost identical.
Adjournment Debate. - Voluntary Services Funding.
If the House agrees, we will hear Deputy Flaherty and Deputy Byrne before the Minister replies.
I thank you for the opportunity to raise this matter of the looming crisis in the home help service in Dublin and elsewhere. I have been approached by representatives of the 250 home helps in the Finglas area and separately by the home help organisers in relation to two separate but related matters. There is great concern in the home help service about the impact of the part-time workers' regulations on the many thousands working in this area in a semivoluntary capacity, receiving token payments and providing an extremely valuable and varied service for the elderly. In the context of the disappointment over the carer's allowance, the limited number of places available in residential homes and the desirability of maintaining people in the community, the home help service is vital. Many of those who approached me are so concerned about the impact of the regulations that they sought to be excluded from the provisions of the legislation. The consequence is, however, that they would lose all the valuable protections which have been provided. They have contacted the Departments of Health, Social Welfare and Labour but nobody seems able to tell them where they stand and what has been arranged.
The home help service is already suffering from the effects of very slow payments and as a consequence they are running massive overdrafts. The Leas-Cheann Comhairle will be very familiar with the wonderful service run in Finglas by Sister Phil from the social service centre where we both hold our advice centres. They have an overdraft of £15,000 which is causing them great difficulty. This morning a similar voluntary group running St. Helena's nursery have been told they must put people on protective notice because their cheques are being bounced by the bank due to the fact that the health board are not paying on time.
The part-time workers' legislation will mean that the cost of maintaining these services will increase phenomenally. Unless there are cast iron guarantees from the health boards that the money will be forthcoming promptly, it will be impossible for local organisers to maintain the services. There must be immediate clarification to reassure home helps that they will be provided for and that this service will have a future. All groups operating in partnership with the State service should receive funding in time so that major additional costs will not be incurred which undermine their ability to provide important services. In the case of St. Helena's nursery the charges have amounted to £2,000.
I sought to raise this matter last week because of the very disturbing reports which are circulating. I hope the Minister will have researched the matter and will have prompted the Eastern Health board to make payments which have been outstanding in some cases for three or four months. Hundreds of voluntary agencies are picking up the tab for the inequalities in our society. These voluntary workers operate the meals on wheels schemes and hundreds of home helps visit sick and lonely people in deprived areas, giving them some semblance of respect and dignity.
Startling evidence has been emerging all over Dublin that the Eastern Health Board are falling behind more than ever in their payments to these voluntary agencies. The result is that home care workers are afraid there will not be sufficient funds to pay their £2 per hour. Many of these agencies, some run by religious and others by lay people, are running up bills for foodstuffs which they are unable to pay. They are forced to use bank overdraft facilities on which the interest rates are cripplingly high. It is intolerable that these voluntary workers should be forced into this position.
We are dealing here with the most deprived sections of the community. There should be a guarantee of payment one month in advance so that people can buy supplies and organise various services. The contributions for the health board must be upfront. I suspect that the problem is not being deliberately created by the Eastern Health Board. They have been under-funded this year to the extent of £6 million and are trying to juggle their books to keep their own bankers at bay. It is a straightforward matter. I heard the good news today that the Eastern Health Board have paid the Finglas group substantial funds which will tide them over. I hope similar funding has found its way to the other caring agencies operating a meals on wheels service from Beaumont Hospital and Crumlin Children's Hospital, among others.
I have listened carefully to the contribution of both Deputies on these issues which are closely related. First, there is no real basis for saying that there is a looming crisis in the home health service in Dublin and I want to outline the reasons I make that statement, which I do not make in any dismissive manner. In the current year the Eastern Health Board will spend £3 million on the home help service and £1 million on meals on wheels. The service has been strenghtened in recent years. The funds which will be made available to health boards under the Programme for Economic and Social Progress will provide the resources to enable health boards to further develop these services in a planned way right through the period of the programme.
The implications which may arise for health boards and voluntary organisations as a result of the enactment of the Worker Protection (Regular Part-Time) Act, 1991, are being examined by my Department in consultation with the agencies concerned.
Specific provisions have been introduced in the past in relation to the impact of amendments to statutory regulations on the home help service and similar action will be taken on this occasion if it proves necessary.
As the House may be aware, in many instances the home help scheme is operated as a good neighbour scheme. Volunteers who work as part-time home helps are paid a stipend or gratuity for the service they provide. As operated in many areas, this is meant only as a contribution and is not intended to compensate fully for the task undertaken. The voluntary nature of the service, which involves a large element of social commitment, is underlined by the fact that a significant proportion of part-time home helps are engaged by voluntary bodies. Indeed, in the Eastern Health Board area, the service is provided wholly by voluntary groups.
It will be appreciated that it is extremely difficult to assess the nature of an employment relationship without having regard to the particular circumstances in individual cases. My Department in conjunction with the Department of Labour are currently examining the position in relation to the contractual status of part-time home helps. As the scope of the Worker Protection (Regular Part-time Employees) Act, 1991, is confined to employees, i.e. persons employed under a contract of service or a contract of apprenticeship, it is not clear that the terms of the Act would be applicable in cases where a contract for service exists and where individuals engaged in a voluntary service are given a stipend or gratuity in respect of a service they might provide or are remunerated on a fee per service or fee per session basis. It is anticipated that the applicability of the Act and any consequent implications, financial or otherwise, for groups providing home help services will be clarified without undue delay. That is what Deputy Flaherty is seeking and I think we are agreed on that.
Turning to the comments from both Deputies about difficulties arising in certain voluntary organisations because of delays in funding the service, cash is made available by my Department to health boards on cash profiles which are linked to each health board's approved level of expenditure. It is a matter for each board to manage the issue of payments so that it makes the optimum use of the total cash available to it and deals with its creditors is a fair and consistent manner. There has been some delay in recent weeks in the making of payments by the Eastern Health Board to organisations providing home help services. However, the current position is that all outstanding payments were made to these organisations by the board during the course of the last week. All outstanding payments have now been made and, given the priority afforded by the board to these payments to the voluntary organisations concerned, I do not anticipate that there will be any further difficulties in maintaining a satisfactory situation in the support of this very important and cost effective service.
Can I take it that the Department are taking responsibility for information and that any home help groups who want it should be directed to the Department because that has been one of the problems to date? I am referring to the impact of the part-time workers.
The information will go from our Department to the health board, but we will take the initiative.