Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Tom Clonan (IND), University of Dublin

Would the HSE be able to say that it is not giving funding for that service provider because they are not amenable to regulation, and that it would be irresponsible of it to release public funds to a carer in that situation? That is something that I really need to get an answer on because if that were the case, that would then confine all of us to using a model we do not want. For example, most recently when funding was cleared for supports for my adult son, his preference was to go with the care provider that had been given to him through the higher education thing for going to university.
In our CHO the HSE just said that we could not do that. We had to take the company it suggested or nothing. For fear of losing the funding, we just had to accept it. The company has been fine but it is not the service of his choosing. Will the Minister of State clarify that for me? I understand that people providing fewer than four are exempt from the regulations, but will the Minister of State guarantee that they will, notwithstanding that, be allowed to receive State funding to provide the very valuable services they do? I thank the Minister of State for his patience on that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:03+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16