Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 December 2023
594. Deputy Martin Browne asked the Minister for Health the number of people per county approved for homecare by the HSE but currently left without care due to the inability of the private providers to fulfil the hours; and his plans to address the lack of care assistants that is causing this shortage. [53724/23]
Amharc ar fhreagraTo examine and address the significant workforce challenges in the homecare and nursing home sectors in Ireland, in March last year I established a cross-departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants. The group was charged with identifying strategic workforce challenges in publicly and privately provided frontline carer roles in home support and nursing homes. Their report was published in October 2022 with 16 recommendations to address recruitment and retention issues. A link to the report is below:
www.gov.ie/en/publication/492bc-report-of-the-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing-home-health-care-assistants/
Implementation of the 16 recommendations of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants is underway and being overseen by a cross-departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health. The group met most recently in October and a progress update was recently published and is available at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/66dd1-strategic-workforce-advisory-group-on-home-carers-and-nursing-home-healthcare-assistants-implementation/
A new and improved HSE Home Support Tender has been in place since August. This delivers on commitments for sectoral reform such as payment for travel time for home support providers, paying carers the National Living Wage at a minimum, and bringing legacy rates in line with the new revised rates of funding.
There are components to the Deputy's question that are operational matters and I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to you directly on these, as soon as possible.
As the Deputy may be aware, management and administrative grade staff in the Fórsa union in the HSE commenced industrial action on Friday, 6 October. As a consequence of this industrial action, members in these grades are not engaging with political forums or processes. As a result, the question asked by the Deputy may be delayed in receiving a response directly from the HSE.
