Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-20
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Thomas Gould (SF), Cork North-Central

I will. I could fill that today. I am dealing with one family. The back garden of their house backs onto the wall of the hospital and they cannot get into it. The man's family are looking out the door when they are caring for their father and there is a dementia unit right there, 200 or 300 yd from his house. Another lady has to stay miles away because there is a shortage of dementia units and beds where people can go. The staff tell her daughter that when she comes to visit, the improvement in her mam is visible and that they can all see it. She is miles away; half an hour or 45 minutes away. When you have a small family with just two people who have their own families trying to make that journey, we need to provide this care locally.
We want to take giant steps forward. We want to work with the Minister of State on home care supports and services. The healthcare assistants are going on strike, the HSE support services in Cork, the home care assistants. I want to send my support to and express my solidarity with them. I ask the Minister of State to do everything in his power to resolve the case because they are really needed.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-20/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:31+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-20