Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025: Committee and Remaining Stages Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23 ============================================================ Kieran O'Donnell (FG), Limerick City I acknowledge the issue that Senator Tully, on behalf of Sinn Féin, has raised in the context of the amendment. This is an important issue that the Government is actively addressing. The delivery of high-quality home support is dependent on the efforts of people who work in the sector. I take this opportunity to acknowledge the great work that has been done by home care workers who provide support and assistance to people of every age who have a wide range of medical, conditions, abilities and needs and who are living at home. I agree with Senator Tully that independence is a huge factor in people being able to remain at home, both physical and mental independence. The mental aspect is often overlooked, but in the context of being in command of their lives and circumstances, whether they are young or old, I do not think people really change. We continue to deliver on our Sláintecare commitments to increase the availability of care in the home and the community. We spoke about statutory home care. The latter goes back to Sláintecare, which is a cross-party policy. We brought a statutory home care scheme into the programme for Government, which I have been charged to work on. It is a process. As people are living longer, there is an inevitable increase in demand for home support. We should welcome the fact that people are living longer, but this brings challenges. There is no point in saying otherwise. Ensuring that we can attract and retain workers in this sector is therefore a matter of high priority for Government. In 2022, SWAG, a multi-agency group to which Senator Boyhan referred earlier, was set up to examine issues relating to the recruitment and retention of healthcare assistants. The group produced a support containing 16 recommendations, many of which have already been delivered. The Department of Health is continuing to work with the HSE and other stakeholders and Departments to deliver on the remaining recommendations. I will shortly be launching a national survey of healthcare assistants that will provide us with important information on their healthcare conditions. The purpose of this survey is to allow healthcare assistants to outline their views. The results of this survey will be combined with the lessons from the implementation of the SWAG report to help us to identify our next priority for workforce development. It is important to highlight that much of the data that Senator Tully and Sinn Féin would like us to report on is not currently available or easily accessed, particularly in circumstances where service providers are not State-funded, which is estimated to be about a quarter of those entities that provide home support nationally. That figure comes from a recent ESRI study. The information provisions set out in this Bill will provide HIQA with the power to collate and report on data of this type in order to inform national policy and planning. The relevant regulations must be made by the Minister before they can commence. This important task is being undertaken within this framework. The Government has delivered the SWAG report, which examined the relevant issues of healthcare assistants, and is working to deliver on its recommendations statutorily. By means of our upcoming survey of healthcare assistants and the regulations to be made on foot of this Bill being enacted, we will collate the data that we need to develop effective policy responses. I accept the point the Senator is making in the amendment. For the reasons I have outlined, however, I will not be accepting it. --- 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/seanad/2026-06-23/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-23