Results 41-60 of 1,032,631 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Joe McHugh OR speaker:Michael Ring OR speaker:Peter Burke)

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Richard Bruton: I welcome this debate and the work the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is doing in this area. In my view longer lives is one of the greatest achievements of humanity but sadly it is too often portrayed as a period of decline or even of burden. We need to see this issue through a different lens. While I welcome the Commission on Care for Older People, I would have to say that again its...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Ruairi Ó Murchú: No Member will speak in this debate who is not in support of the provision of statutory home care as a right on an equal pegging with the provision of nursing home care. We have all dealt with many families who are seeking to get the right care package in place to ensure their loved one does not have to go into a nursing home any earlier than necessary. We need to ensure that what has been...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Peter Fitzpatrick: Ireland has an ageing population. Life expectancy in this country has risen by two years for women and 2.5 years for men since 2008. With an average life expectancy of 84.1 for women and 80.5 for men, Ireland is now above the European average. Central Statistics Office, CSO, projections indicate that by 2030, there will be more than 1 million people aged 65 and over in Ireland. It...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I hate to introduce rancour into any debate, particularly this one, but, as regards reference to the reserves that everybody has their eye on at present, let me remind the House that we had reserves in the recent past. They lasted two days when the run came on the banks. That is how much we can rely on reserves. They are there for a purpose and have to be kept for - if we intend to go on-----

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Paul Murphy: To bail out the banks. Is that what the Deputy is thinking of?

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Bernard Durkan: No, it was not to bail out the banks; it was to live up to our commitments. We, as a country, had borrowed beyond our capacity. I am sorry; the Deputies opposite can run away from it anytime they wish.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: What has this got to do with the debate?

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl: Show Deputy Durkan the respect of allowing him speak without interruption.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Bernard Durkan: I thank the Ceann Comhairle. I reiterate that everybody has their eye on the reserves. That is how long the reserves last. They are reserves because there is a need for them in an emergency. In this situation, we need a service - that is correct - but there is a vast difference between the service in the 1950s and the service now and what it entails. In the 1950s, we had large-scale...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl: Next is Deputy Gino Kenny, who is sharing time with Deputy Paul Murphy.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Gino Kenny: Yesterday, representatives from Alone were before the health committee speaking about the home care sector. One of the contributors said that a statutory home care scheme was first mentioned in this House in 1968. I looked back and that is correct. A scheme like this was first mooted back in the late 1960s. We have been talking about this for a considerable amount of time and it still has...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Paul Murphy: How a society treats and takes care of its older people says a great deal about the values of that society. The way that older people are currently treated does not reflect well on the basic values that underpin our current for-profit, capitalist society. It is a society and an economy where care work is massively undervalued and under-provided. Where it is provided, it is on a for-profit...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl: You can keep going if the other Deputy does not come in.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Fergus O'Dowd: I am only at the beginning of a five-minute speech that I may not have. Let us look at analysis, best practice and facts. Let us look at Denmark and the northern economies, the so-called socially committed states. I do not have a problem paying more tax if I get the services I need and they are of benefit to the community. I hold that view firmly and strongly. If we really think...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl: I think the Deputy should keep his seat warm for that grandson of his if he is going to give performances like that.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Róisín Shortall: He could be in another party.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Martin Kenny: These are statements on statutory home care. The problem, as most speakers from the Opposition have made plain, is that we do not have statutory home care. That is the issue. What we have is a system where much of the care is provided by private providers and which is not working very well for most people. I have examples of that the length and breadth of my constituency. I continually...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Fergus O'Dowd: This is a very important debate and I congratulate the Minister of State, who is an advocate for the care of older people. She has a difficult job and she fights her corner, and I will certainly always stand up for her in that respect. I have great admiration for her. The care of older people is critical, but the way they have been treated is appalling. If we look at the facts that Alone...

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Seán Ó Fearghaíl: We are all going in the same direction.

Statutory Home Care: Statements (27 Jun 2024)

Joe Flaherty: I have a vested interest in ensuring we have safeguards in place for older people. We are, thanks to advances in medicine and the tireless efforts of staff in the HSE, living a lot longer. We want to continue living in our own homes and our own communities. We want to be surrounded by siblings and grandchildren. That is the least anyone can aspire to in a modern and progressive Ireland. ...