Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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167. To ask the Minister for Health when he will introduce home help on a statutory basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43565/24]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Improving access to home support is a priority for the Government. The overall budget for home support in 2025 will be circa €838 million. This is the largest allocation ever for home support. That is an increase of over 70% when compared to the 2020 budget of €487m.

In Budget 2025, €121.9 million additional investment was secured for Home Support services. This means we will now be able to provide approximately 24 million home support hours in 2025.

The Programme for Government commitment to “introduce a statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes, which will provide equitable access to high quality, regulated home care” requires focused effort across several different workstreams that are all contributing towards strengthening the statutory framework and improving the experiences of those receiving home support.

The Department of Health is progressing the development of a regulatory framework for home support providers. This will consist of primary legislation for the licensing of providers, secondary legislation in the form of regulations, which set out minimum requirements, and HIQA national quality standards.

The first element that is being legislated for relates to the licensing and registration of home support providers. The Health (Amendment) (Licensing of Professional Home Support Providers) Bill 2024 is at an advanced stage. In May 2024, the General Scheme was approved by Government. The Joint Committee for Health began pre-legislative scrutiny of the General Scheme in June with a report published by them on 14 October 2024. My officials are currently reviewing the recommendations included in the Committee’s report. The General Scheme has now been referred to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel for final drafting.

This Bill will provide for the regulation of the sector by HIQA. Final amendments have been made to draft regulations for home support providers following a public consultation and engagement with stakeholder groups. The Department has been working closely with HIQA, which has prepared draft quality standards that are expected to go out for public consultation Q4 2024.

As well as delivering on the legislative elements of this commitment, the Department is working to address the future financing of homecare, the reform of the model of service delivery and the breadth of issues relating to recruitment and retention in this sector; all in the context of unprecedented expansion of the State-funded home support service, nationally.

Over the last two years, extensive work has taken place within the Department of Health to progress the Programme for Government commitment, including but not limited to:

• Development of draft regulations, which were informed by a 6-week public consultation completed in August 2022. The consultation results were analysed and published, and have been incorporated in revisions to the draft regulations.

• Oversight of the pilot for testing of a reformed model of service for the delivery for homecare, which became fully operational in 4 Community Healthcare Organisations in this period. Evaluation of the pilot has been completed and reviewed.

• Ongoing engagement with the HSE on the continuing reform of the model of service delivery for home support. Funding has been provided for establishment of a National Home Support Office and the Head of Service, and a number of other posts have been recruited. The national rollout of interRAI as the new standard assessment tool for care-needs in the community is underway.

• Addressing the shortage of care workers in Ireland through establishing, in March 2022, a cross departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group. After extensive engagement and consultation, in September 2022, the group published a report containing 16 recommendations to address workforce challenges. Implementation is being overseen by a cross-departmental Implementation Group, chaired by the Department of Health.

• Extensive engagement with the HSE and DPENDR on the establishment of the HSE home support tender in 2023, ensuring that it 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.

• Liaising with the DETE on bringing forward a statutory instrument authorising the issuance of 1,500 employment permits for home support workers.

• Commissioning multiple reports on potential demand, costs and charging models for home support, from the ESRI and the European Observatory on Health Systems. This research is being examined, as it forms an important part of the evidence base for the development of a sustainable funding model for home support services in the context of our ageing population.

• Expanding access to home support services through securing significant increases in funding through annual Estimates processes.