The government is being accused of failing to provide adequate home support services for older people across Donegal.
Deputy Pearse Doherty is demanding urgent action from the Minister for Health over the issue following a report released this week by Care Alliance Ireland which has revealed that over 65s face greater difficulty accessing homecare than a decade ago.
The damning study comes following the release of figures to Sinn Féin which revealed that as of May 2018 there are 179 people across the county waiting to receive homecare packages.
Teachta Doherty said it is crucial that older people can access Home Supports which enable them to live independently for as long as possible.
He added: “Unfortunately, years of piece-meal funding for homecare packages provided under this Fine Gael-led government, with the support of Fianna Fáil, has meant that this service is seriously underfunded and cannot meet the need that exists for the service across our communities.
“According to a report this week from Care Alliance Ireland there was a notable reduction to the service between 2009 and 2012, and most acutely between 2011 and 2012 when there was a reduction of over 10% or 1.5m hours of home care across the state.
“This has had the effect of making it much harder for people 65 and over who qualify for home care packages to access the service today than was the case a decade ago.”
Deputy Doherty pointed out that as of May this year, there are 179 people in Donegal on the home support waiting list. He said it is obvious that not enough funding is being made available to the HSE to meet the demands which are being placed on the service.
Deputy Doherty said: “The state has a responsibility to ensure that the care needs of our older citizens are met and that they are cared for with dignity and respect, yet the current situation clearly demonstrates that this is not the case for many of our Over 65s.
“That is why this week in the Dáil I have tabled a number of Parliamentary Questions to the Minister for Health in which I will demand that he produces the latest data in respect of the wait times for Home care packages across the county.
“Similarly, I will also be calling on him to take urgent action to address the chronic waits being experienced by all those older people who today remain in their homes without the adequate supports in place.”
