THE Government has not done enough to fund home help services properly so that they can be there for older people in their homes.
That’s according to County Limerick politician Richard O’Donoghue who, speaking in the Dáil, said that his own father lived to the ripe old age of 98 thanks to the care of the home help.
“I am from a large family and we were lucky enough that between our own family and the home help, that was the age he lived to in the comfort of his own home. I am so thankful for that,” the Rural Ireland Independent TD pointed out.
“I look at the home help today and the struggles they have in going to help the vulnerable with the inflation costs involved with travelling to provide home help. They are not getting the right supports and funding. What it boils down to is that the carers are our family. They are our extended family members that go out and do the work to help us so that we can have an equal type of life.
“They help to make us better people for what we do and raise our families within our own homes. The Government has not done enough to help them,” Deputy O’Donoghue insisted.
“The Government has not done enough to fund them properly so they can help. If it was a business case, I have been in business all of my life, what they provide at home is only a fraction of what it would cost the State if people had to go to different settings. The Government does not seem to recognise that by putting in a little more funding, the better quality of life that people could have and the better care they could have. People would even look at helping people in their own homes as a career, if the Government funded it properly. That is all we ask, namely, that the carers are funded properly.”
