Respite care firm to create 300 jobs

NEW Irish care company, FRS Homecare is to create 300 new jobs over the next year and a half as it looks to grow quickly after its launch earlier this year.

The company specialises in a range of home-based respite care services (services include: live-in care; day and night care; companionship; Alzheimer’s and dementia care; end-of-life care; family support; convalescence care and pre- and post-natal care for mothers and babies) and only launched last May. However, it is a subsidiary of the well-established FRS Network group (formerly Farm Relief Services), which provides a number of services for the farming and agricultural industry.

FRS Homecare already has 26 offices around the country (its head office is in Roscrea) and aims, according to general manager Colin Donnery, to have up to 15 fully-qualified carers working in every county around the country. A number of the planned 300 jobs will be nurse advisers, who will be overseeing the expansion of the company’s services across the country. Mr Donnery said that the company plans to have the full complement of staff in place by the end of next year.

While FRS Homecare isn’t alone in this space in Ireland – the British company Comfort Keepers has a successful Irish franchise and the US company, Home Instead is currently turning over about €20m a year through its Irish operation – it is the only Irish-owned entity currently operational. Mr Donnery added that the target is to generate a turnover of about €1m by the end of next year.

The independent homecare sector is becoming more popular here as it takes more pressure off the HSE and allows for people to be released from hospital earlier, giving them a better option to continue their treatment at home.