'Alarming' lack of extra money for homecare scheme, advocacy group warns

Age Action senior public affairs and policy specialist Nat O’Connor said a much-needed pay increase for care workers has taken up more of the budget than was previously the case. Picture: Tommy Clancy 

There is an "alarming" lack of extra money for a national homecare scheme in the HSE service plan despite a focus on older people’s care, advocacy group Age Action has warned.

Under Government plans being developed for a statutory scheme, families would be able to draw down funding for homecare in the same way they can do for nursing homes through the Fair Deal scheme. This is yet to come to fruition, however.

Age Action senior public affairs and policy specialist Nat O’Connor said faster progress was needed. 

“We need to see the plan for funding but we haven’t seen that yet,” he said.

“We would have liked to see a step-change in the care budget in anticipation of the homecare scheme.” 

He said there was no provision for this in Budget 2024 either, saying in these documents there was no extra money to launch a national homecare scheme which was promised in the programme for government of 2020.

That is an alarm bell for us — is this Government going to deliver that scheme before the next general election?

The HSE service plan, published on Wednesday, allows for delivery of 22 million home support hours, also known as homecare, to about 54,100 people.

However, the aim for last year was for 23.9 million home support hours to reach 55,910 people.

Those targets hit a staffing crisis which left more than 6,000 people waiting either for a new homecare package or extended hours to match their needs.

Mr O’ Connor said the issue was that a much-needed pay increase for these workers has taken up more of the budget than was previously the case.

“We are in favour of care workers being paid properly,” he said, warning it must be properly funded.

He welcomed an overall increase in funding for older person’s services. 

People involved with the disability sector are also examining details of how their services will be provided.

A spokeswoman for the Disability Federation of Ireland said a number of issues were under review. 

Among them is recruitment and retention of staff in services funded though a Section 39 agreement with the HSE.

They are also looking at “funding to deliver on the Disability Action Plan, roll-out of health regions — ensuring disability is factored in — and disability inclusive mainstream health services".