Rose Conway-Walsh condemns privatisation and failures in home care
Rose Conway-Walsh criticised cuts and the privatisation of home care and urged the minister to fix staffing, pay and travel allowance problems. She cited HSC figures showing 242 people on the Mayo waiting list for home support and 1,581 clients receiving home support in Mayo.
Home care criticised
She said that an excellent home care service in 2007-2008 was dismantled as the HSC and the Minister for Health 'chopped and chopped' and privatised home care, a decision she described as wrong and avoidable. She commended home carers for their work but said the system has been constructed badly over time.
Mayo waiting list and client numbers
A spokesperson for HSC West and North West confirmed there are currently 242 people in Mayo on the waiting list for home support and that home support is provided to a total of 1,581 clients in Mayo. Rose Conway-Walsh used these figures to underline the scale of unmet need in the county.
Workforce, pay and retention problems
She highlighted recruitment and retention difficulties among home carers, pointing to low pay and the lack of a travel allowance as factors undermining staff retention. These workforce pressures, she said, prevent the delivery of a proper home care system despite the efforts of carers.
Impact on hospitals and services
She warned that the shortfall in home support has knock-on effects, including people remaining in acute hospitals longer than necessary and pressure in other hospital settings. She argued that the lack of a functioning home care system undermines the operation of the wider health service.
Appeal to the minister and political accountability
She thanked those who brought the motion and urged the minister to listen, saying the situation "need never have happened" and attributing responsibility to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael working together. She said there are presented solutions and pressed the minister to implement fixes.
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The first thing I want to do is to commend all the home carers and the people who are providing a great service, but Minister, we need to have some truth around this situation because you know, going back to 2007-2008, we had an excellent home care service in this country and the HSC and the Minister for Health and the Minister at the time went around and they chopped and chopped and they privatised the situation, privatised home care, such a vital, vital service. This was wrong. I have a file that thick at home since we worked at it in Mayo because they started in Mayo where they started putting the cuts on home care. This is not the right way to do home care. I want to commend and thank those who brought forward this motion this morning. This situation need never have happened. It has been constructed by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael together and that is the honesty around it. The HSC have confirmed that there are currently 242 people in Mayo for the waiting list for home support. That is not right. That is home support that they vitally need. A spokesperson for HSC West and North West said that home support is provided to a total of 1,581 clients in Mayo. We cannot operate a health service without a proper home care system and we do not have, despite the great work that has been done by home cares, we do not have that, because you cannot have the retention of staff. The way some of these staff, I mean the deal that they get in terms of the money that they are paid or the lack of a travel allowance that they get is not right. That is why you have problems with retention and recruitment. Minister, this situation has to be fixed because it has a knock-on impact obviously on people who are in acute hospitals longer than they need to, but also in other situations in other hospitals as well. There is a way to fix this and we have presented to you time and time again how this situation can be fixed. Minister, I am urging you to listen.
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