I welcome the Bill because there is an urgent need for the Government to prioritise the enactment of legislation aimed at setting out a registration framework for providers of home support services. I want to reference in particular those sections of the Bill under which the chief inspector of social services at HIQA will have responsibility for establishing and maintaining a register for home support services operating in Ireland. The Bill will also provide for criminal liability to be assigned for unregistered home support services and the ability to cancel registration of a provider where serious non-compliance is established. As I understand it, the HSE currently operates under its non-statutory home support authorisation scheme, which was established in 2023. Approved providers are merely obliged to adhere to the authorisation scheme's service specifications and associated standard operating procedures. This is not about pointing the finger at any individual home support service provider, many of which provide compassionate care every day and, along with their staff, do incredible work under very difficult conditions at times. Increasingly what I see and hear from my constituents in County Offaly is that there is a sense they are caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the care delivered by staff, who appear to have very little training or who are, in some cases, literally unable to communicate with either the person receiving the care or their families because of language barriers. This is becoming a source of frustration. The staff are often visibly under enormous pressure to get in and get out and onto the next house. This can be very upsetting for everyone, including the staff members themselves. We need to ensure we have a national home support service capable of delivering care according to the highest standards. In terms of the provision of home help, serious gaps need to be addressed. It has come to my attention many times in my constituency offices that when the staff or home helps take their annual leave, as they are entitled to do, or if they are ill, they are not replaced. This causes a lot of frustration and a lot of difficulty for families struggling to cope to try to fill the gap until the home help comes back. It is unfair on the home help who happens to be out that there is no substitute or replacement while they are gone. This seems to be a recurring theme. It has been brought to my attention too many times and I hope it will be addressed. We need national legislation to be introduced as a matter of urgency. Reliance on guidelines and what are effectively voluntary codes is not ideal and it needs to be changed urgently. The fact remains that we need to respond far more effectively to the concerns of those families who can clearly identify the failings in the standard of care delivered to their loved ones. We need to listen to these people and take on board what they are telling us. These people are sometimes fearful of speaking out because they feel they are risking the minimal care time they have and receive. They fear it will be withdrawn. It is important that we listen, that we acknowledge the failings in the services, that we strive to improve and that we bring forward legislation to make sure that providers are protected and that the recipients of the care are also protected.

Sentiment score: 0.15