Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025: Second Stage Dail Éireann — 2026-01-20 ============================================================ Peter 'Chap' Cleere (FF), Carlow-Kilkenny I will speak to the Minister of State specifically about it offline. It is these sorts of incidences. It is approved. The will is there but the specific person is not there. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy O’Donnell, will take that on for me because I have another case as well of a lady in her early 40s who due to her medical condition is unfortunately wheelchair bound. When this lady left hospital they could not get anyone to cover the hours, so she ended up going into the local nursing home. She was in the nursing for six weeks all the while her hours were approved. Huge work was done by the HSE and the providers but they simply were not there. Something might need to be done on the education side of things such as making sure there is more access to home care packages qualifications but it is a huge issue in rural Ireland. I am from a place called Skeaghvasteen in County Kilkenny. There might be somebody in Kilkenny city but to drive from Kilkenny city to Skeaghvasteen for a half hour or an hour will not pay them in terms of paying for diesel. It is a huge issue, and it needs to be addressed. The lack of standardisation across services can also be problematic. If you have different agencies providing home care, there is inconsistency in training and quality of service but I think this Bill will really help. I really welcome this element of the Bill where you get that consistency. If we could join it up with some sort of ETB or education training course - a level 5 or level 6 course - that would be really helpful. We also have to consider the emotional and psychological challenges for families and care givers alike with the stress, pressure and anxiety these families are under. By the time they come to me they are on their knees. They are nearly begging. These people are going to the wall themselves but they need that bit of hope and support. The right to be in your own home is huge. That is really important. Addressing the challenges in home care and home help packages is not just about improving services but it is about enhancing quality of life for our elderly and for our vulnerable populations. Together we can work towards a future where everyone has access to compassionate and reliable home care. I trust in the Minister of State that when this Bill is brought through, it will make a difference to families right across the county, but in particular in my constituency of Carlow-Kilkenny and my constituents who I represent on a daily basis. I appreciate him taking a couple of individual cases on board. I am going to finish up now because myself and Deputy O'Meara have a Pilates class at 6.30 p.m. and we need to get to it. We are meeting the Social Democrats afterwards. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. 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