Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the important issue of home care. Today, 56,000 people across the length and breadth of the country will receive home care. I am lucky to have a budget of €730 million from the Government to make sure that we can deliver as much home care as possible. In the four years since this Government came to power, 4.1 million extra hours of home care have been provided. Regarding Cork South-West and the Deputy's own area, the HSE has made changes. We saw the same changes made in Waterford over the past two years. The goal is to put a team in place in an area where there would be four people that the person would be familiar with. The reason behind it is that some people need care three times a day for seven days of the week. You cannot have the same person providing that care, especially at the weekends and on bank holidays. Teams have been put in place that people would be familiar with. I can look at any specific issues the Deputy is aware of. The whole purpose is to make sure that we have staff readily available on Saturdays and Sundays.

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