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Dail Éireann — 2026-03-05
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Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (SF), Donegal

We are very proud in Donegal that we have the strongest level of home care assistance delivered directly by the State through the HSE and that is the way we want to keep it. My concern is that there is an agenda to privatise the service in Donegal, that is, to hold back recruitment in the public system and secure the services of private providers. I am aware of incidents in Donegal where the HSE has had to step in after a poor service by private providers. There are real concerns around this. The facts do not lie. The waiting lists are growing. There are 324 people waiting. That is not just about those families and, of course, the people themselves not having that level of support; it also impacts, as I said, on Letterkenny University Hospital. It means more people in the emergency department because we cannot release patients back into the community. I want to get a sense and assurance from the Minister of State that this is not about a privatisation agenda.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-05