There have.

I thank Deputy Murnane O'Connor very much for her question, which I assume is in relation to the heavy weight of schoolbags for children.

I understand a report has been compiled, but I believe the Deputy should speak to the office of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, and pass that on. Obviously, it is the Department of Education that will deal with that. I thank Deputy Ó Laoghaire for his question on Beaumont Residential Care. I also thank him for the manner in which he has raised it on both occasions. It is my understanding that there have been intensive discussions between the NTPF and Beaumont Residential Care. Its contract was extended fo…

I am a little surprised at the Deputy's question because this is the first Government ever that embedded ring-fenced funding for dementia supports. Currently, we have 29 dementia advisers throughout the country. We have 23 memory support services and 24 memory clinics all over the country. Coupled with that, this year, 15% of all home care hours are provided specifically for people with dementia. Last week, I was delighted to announce the 46th dementia-specific day centre that was opened this year. This Government …

The existing tender for home support was extended by the HSE to 30 June. The process of developing the new tender is at an advanced stage. Engagement has been ongoing between the HSE and the provider representative bodies. The HSE published stage two of the process on 25 May. I am pleased the proposed indirect hourly core rate includes a number of significant reforms that can stabilise the market and improve the terms and conditions for workers. This rate is subject to the new tender, including provision for sector…

As agreed by Government, the national living wage will be set at 60% of hourly median wages in line with the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. It will be introduced over a four-year period and will be in place by 2026, at which point it will replace the national minimum wage. The first step towards reaching a living wage will be the 80 cent increase to the national minimum wage from 1 January 2023 to €11.30 per hour. This will be followed by gradual increases to the national minimum wage until it reaches 6…

No. It is travel time we are dealing with in this. We are not dealing with mileage as well.

Mileage is not included. Travel time is included at €2.99 per hour.

With all due respect, the Deputy was previously a Minister of State in the Department of Health. She understands that I am constrained by my budget. My budget is €723 million for home care this year, which is a significant amount. She mentioned failures but 56,980 people will receive home care today. A total of 3,524 new applicants are funded but are waiting for supports while 2,908 people are already receiving supports, but not the maximum hours advised. It is important to put that on the record. With regard to th…

Targets rose from 18.67 million hours in 2020 to 22 million hours in 2023, while the delivery of hours rose from 17.55 million in 2020 to 20.78 million in 2022. As of 31 March 2023, 5.2 million hours had been provided in the year to date, and this was an increase-----

I did not interrupt the Deputy. This was an increase of about 250,000 hours on the same period in 2022. I thank Home and Community Care Ireland and Joseph Musgrave for their interaction with the HSE as we develop this tender. A huge number of hours have gone into putting it and the recommendations of the advisory group in place. I am delighted to say the statutory instrument authorising the assurance of 1,000 emergency permits for home care workers was signed in December, with 68 permits issued to date.

I recently completed a series of high-level round-table discussions bringing together the Department of Health, the HSE and the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland in the first instance. The second meeting included representatives of all the NGOs that provide supports in the community, while the third related to the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, primary care psychology, disability and CAMHS. A lot of it involved brainstorming to see what we could do to improve access to CAMHS and to see how we c…

There have been discussions generally over recent times with a view to possibly refocusing CAMHS teams, not least given the staffing difficulties, although the HSE has no plans at present to do this. A new assistant national director, AND, has accepted the post in the HSE and a new clinical lead has also accepted that post and will be in place shortly. I look forward to interacting with both the AND and the clinical lead in regard to which model they feel is in line with best practice. I want to ensure young people…

As the Deputy will be aware, in regard to the number of referrals relating to primary care psychology, progressing disability services, PDS, teams and CAMHS, getting 33% more referrals is massive for any system. I compliment all the teams on the ground because they saw 21% more children last year with the same levels of staffing and issued 225,000 appointments. CAMHS is there for children and young people with moderate to acute mental health needs and they need a primary diagnosis to avail of it. Some children will…

The system is far from broken. Today, as we stand here in Leinster House 56,000 people have received home care and will receive it at lunchtime and in the evening. We are challenged in areas where we do not have staff. I had a budget of €723 million this year, a phenomenal amount of money, to deliver home care. We are challenged from the perspective that approximately 3,000 people are waiting for home care. They are funded, but we cannot get the carers. The second issue is that about 3,200 people have a partial pac…

I can take that question.

I thank the Deputy for her question. I am delighted to hear Cavan-Monaghan has one of the pilot projects. We have 67% coverage of physical Jigsaw services throughout Ireland to provide youth mental health supports for those aged 12 to 25. However, there are some glaring areas that do not have Jigsaw provision, including the Deputy's area, community healthcare organisation, CHO, 5 and Kildare. I will meet with Dr. Joseph Duffy of Jigsaw in the next fortnight to discuss this. Jigsaw moved to provide many supports onl…

The Government remains firmly committed to enhancing specialist services for eating disorders, including improved access and shorter waiting lists. Over the last four years, more than €8 million has been made available for eating disorder posts. The national model of care aims to establish 16 teams in total. There are currently five teams in place and three more are being recruited. Recruitment continues, with 60% of whole-time equivalent positions filled. I say to anyone listening that funding is being provided th…

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this important motion on specialist community-based disability respite services providing us with a welcome opportunity to discuss the matter. The Government is not opposing this motion on the grounds that we all share a desire to see increased respite services for people with disabilities and those loved ones who care for them. Respite - a short break - can make a significant difference to the lives of people with disabilities and their families. It can be a very positive …

I thank the Deputy for his question. It is very valid. He is quite right in saying waiting lists have doubled in the past three years. We have had 33% more referrals and the teams managed to allocate 225,000 appointments last year. I have held a series of round-table discussions in the past month or so, the first of which was with representatives of the HSE, the Department and the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. The second meeting was in relation to all the NGOs that provide services, and the third was with re…