Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-20
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Brian Stanley (IND), Laois

-----but it is an area that may need to be looked at. I know what the Government is trying to do. It does not have to do away with the informal pieces that are there. I think Deputy Charles Ward is okay with my taking another minute or two. As regards the informal care and what the Government is trying to cater for there, I do not want to kill that off altogether, but it may need to be examined. I am not totally sure about that. It makes sense to have informal arrangements.
Overall, I welcome the Bill. The Minister of State has heard what I said about the labour shortage. That is directly related to the quality of the jobs. The HSE is the cheapest way. That has been proven. If the Minister of State looks at the figures, he will see it. The last I saw, I think the private providers were €34 an hour or thereabouts. That is two years ago now. What is important here is that we increase the number of people in this. Surely within that 5% who are unemployed at the moment we can find some people who can be trained up to provide care in their local communities. We need to be able to keep this local. A few people driving across the county, from Ballylinan over to Camross or somewhere like that, will not work. We need to be able to keep it within local areas. It does not work otherwise for the home helps. I hope the Minister of State will look at that area.

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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