Carol Nolan urges urgent statutory register for home support
Carol Nolan spoke in support of the Home Support Bill 2025, urging statutory registration and stronger oversight of home support services. She called for a national register under the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HICWA and criminal penalties for unregistered providers.
Key proposals
The speaker welcomed provisions in the Home Support Bill 2025 that would set out a registration framework for providers of home support services and said legislation must be prioritised to deliver that framework.
HICWA register and enforcement
Carol Nolan referenced the role assigned to the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HICWA to establish and maintain a register for home support services. She noted the bill would provide for criminal liability for unregistered services and the ability to cancel registration where serious non-compliance is found.
Constituent concerns and service gaps
She reported that constituents in County Offaly describe staff with very little training, language barriers that prevent communication with care recipients and families, and staff under enormous pressure to rush from visit to visit. She also highlighted recurring problems where home helps who take leave or are ill are not replaced, leaving families without necessary support.
Assessment of current arrangements
Carol Nolan contrasted the bill with the HSE's non-statutory Home Support Authorisation Scheme established in 2023, arguing that reliance on guidelines and voluntary codes is inadequate. She said many families are fearful of speaking out because they risk losing the limited care time they receive.
Call for urgent statutory change
She insisted that national statutory legislation must be introduced as a matter of urgency to protect both providers and recipients of care, to address identified failings and to ensure home support services meet higher standards.
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Minister, I welcome this bill because there is an urgent need for government to prioritise the enactment of legislation aimed at setting out a registration framework for providers of home support services. I want to particularly reference those parts of the Home Support Bill 2025 under which the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HICWA will have responsibility for establishing and maintaining a register for home support services operating in Ireland. The bill will also provide for criminal liability to be assigned for unregistered home support services and the ability to cancel registration of a provider where serious non-compliance is established. As I understand it, the HSE currently operates under its non-statutory Home Support Authorisation Scheme which was established in 2023. Approved providers are merely obliged to adhere to the Authorisation Scheme service specifications and associated standard operating procedures. This is not about pointing the finger at any individual home support service provider, many of whom provide compassionate care every day and who, along with their staff, do incredible work under very difficult conditions at times. But increasingly what I am seeing and hearing from my own constituents in County Offaly is that there is a sense that they are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the care delivered by staff that appear to have very little training or who are in some cases literally unable to communicate with either the person receiving the care or their families because of language barriers and that is becoming a source of frustration. Oftentimes the staff are visibly under enormous pressure to get in and get out and onto the next house and this can be very upsetting for everyone including the staff member themselves. We need to ensure that we have National Home Support Service capable of delivering care according to the highest standards and just in terms of the provision of home help there are serious gaps that need to be addressed. It has come to my attention many times in my constituency offices that when the staff or home helps take their annual leave as they are entitled to or if they are ill they are not replaced and this causes a lot of frustration and a lot of difficulty for families struggling to cope to try and fill that gap until the home help comes back and it is unfair on the home help who happens to be out as well that there is no substitute or replacement while they are gone and that is something that seems to be a reoccurring theme. Certainly it has been brought to my attention too many times and I do hope that that will be addressed. But we need National statutory legislation to be introduced as a matter of urgency. Reliance on guidelines and what are effectively voluntary codes is not ideal and it needs to be changed urgently. The fact remains that we need to respond far more effectively to the concerns of those families who can clearly identify the failings in the standard of care delivered to their loved ones. We need to listen to those people and indeed take on board what they are telling us. But these are the people who sometimes are fearful of speaking out because they feel that they are risking the minimal care time that they have and that they receive that this may be withdrawn. So it is important that we do listen as I say and that we do acknowledge the failings in the services and that we strive to improve and that we do bring forward legislation to make sure that providers are protected but also the recipients of the care are also protected. Go raibh maigat.
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