A fundamental issue facing us is how we care for older people in society and for those in need of care due to a disability. The welfare and treatment of the most vulnerable people is a mark of the society in which we want to live. What we are being told by advocacy groups and by the people themselves is that they want support to stay in their own homes and live with as much as dignity as possible. The Bill seeks to regulate private home care providers, establish a register, set minimum standards to be enforced by HIQA and create an inspector regime. While all of these are very welcome, the time it has taken for the Bill to be progressed shows how much of a priority it is for the Government. The Bill is yet another missed opportunity by the Government. The reform that the sector and families have been seeking for years is nowhere to be seen. The Bill represents a profound failure of ambition. The previous programme for Government promised a statutory home care scheme. That was six years ago. Where is it? How many more years will the public have to wait for an equivalent of the nursing home support scheme that will deliver universal home care? We need to see universal and affordable access to home care. It is the right thing to do and it is the wise thing to do. Properly supported home care reduces pressure on our overwhelmed hospitals. It is better for the individual, the State and the entire health system. After all the time spent on this legislation, what do we get? We get a register of private providers. The legislation is yet another example of the do-nothing Government getting the bare minimum done. Without a public scheme the Bill will only further embed the privatisation of care. The Bill is full of shortfall after shortfall. Affordability of care is completely absent. For the thousands of families who are crippled each and every month, the Bill will change nothing. It will police a system that is failing people and families across the State. The Bill is needed but it does not go anywhere near far enough. It has become clearer by the day that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have little to no interest in building a genuinely fair and public system. The Bill is more proof of this. What we are seeing is the further embedding of privatisation. Two thirds of home care provided is private and public provision continues to drop. Can the Minister of State point to a single public service that has improved thanks to the Government pushing for further privatisation? Is there anything, be it housing, roads, water, infrastructure or the energy sector? All that "the market will provide" privatisation model has done is drive up the cost of services for everyone, from the State to ordinary workers, while driving down quality and services. Where is the recognition of different levels of need? The Bill treats the provider of basic assistance the same as the provider of complex high dependency care with no differentiated funding or support except for a tiny number of intensive packages. This is a blunt instrument that fails to match the reality of care. While we are debating the Bill, 34,000 carers across Ireland are in a state of anxiety and fear. This has been caused by the Minister of State and his colleagues. It is fear about the thousands of euro that Revenue will be looking for as part of a back payment of tax for part of three years. This is yet another act of utter heartlessness by the Minister of State and his colleagues, going after carers who provide so much to our society. My father was one of the lucky ones as he chose to stay at home. There was space there and my mother could provide care for him. The vital care that carers such as my mother provide goes unnoticed. A clap on the back is not good enough. They are not getting near minimum wage for 24 hours, seven days a week. To tax them on this is ridiculous. They get the respite grant but it does not go anywhere near respite. It pays bills and pays for electricity. This is all it does. As I said, my father was one of the lucky ones. A report into a nursing home in Kilkenny stated that people were cold and did not have enough bedsheets and there was a strong smell of urine. HIQA inspectors concluded that the residents in the home did not receive a good standard of care. Carers continue to shoulder the consequences of decades of underinvestment in home care supports, all while saving the State billions in care each and every year. How can the Minister of State justify going after so many who are already struggling to get by while, at the same time, giving massive tax breaks to the likes of Starbucks and McDonalds. It spells out clearly where the Government's priorities lie. Will the Minister of State provide an update on the adult safeguarding legislation in his closing remarks? The policy framework was published in December but we are still none the wiser as to when the Government will bring forward this much-needed legislation. The Law Reform Commission has done most of the work. When will the Bill be brought forward?

Sentiment score: 0.18