Carers to get national living wage and transport expenses

More than 6,000 people are on HSE homecare waiting lists around the country  Picture: PA Wire

A HSE plan to recruit homecare providers will be finalised next month and will ensure carers get the national living wage and transport expenses.

The challenges to recruitment in the homecare sector can be seen in new figures showing that just seven people have applied for a new work permit that allows carers from outside the EU to work in Ireland.

More than 6,000 people are on HSE homecare waiting lists around the country, according to the latest available data, with almost all the hours funded and waiting for a carer to be found.

Carers have called for urgent changes to how the private and voluntary care sector is run, with many struggling to make ends meet, especially as energy costs rise. 

These agencies deliver care under contract with the HSE, which also directly employs carers.

A spokesperson for Minister of State Mary Butler, who has responsibility for older people, said a new HSE home support tender for private and voluntary providers will be finalised by April 30. 

“It is Minister Butler’s intention that the forthcoming tender will reflect the recommendation that providers provide a national living wage and payment for time spent travelling between people’s homes, as agreed by the members of the Strategic Workforce Advisory Group including Home and Community Care Ireland.” 

Concerns have been raised about how this will be monitored, but the Minister is confident the HSE has resources in place to monitor service delivery and performance.

The working group published a scathing report on the sector in October, finding that "care-working has a poor reputation, it is considered unattractive, poorly remunerated, and under-valued".

“Minister Butler has strongly endorsed all of the Advisory Group’s recommendations and is committed to their full implementation as a priority,” the Minister's spokesperson said.

One change to come from the report is a new employment permit system for workers from outside the European Economic Area.

A quota of 1,000 employment permits was introduced for home care workers but there were seven applications during January, the first month it was open.

Each permit lasts for two years and requires the carer to be paid a minimum annual salary of €27,000 based on a 39-hour week. 

The Working Group report also highlighted concerns that people receiving social welfare benefits were reluctant to take part-time carer hours as they might lose benefits and overall end up worse off financially.

However, the Department of Social Protection insisted they “support part-time working through a number of schemes, including casual and systematic short-time work arrangements for people on jobseeker payments”.

They pointed to programmes such as the Part-time Job Incentive Scheme, the Working Family Payment, and Back to Work Family Dividend.

The report recommended a review of public employment services to increase the number of jobseekers who become care workers.