As the Tánaiste is aware, a large number of older people in hospital are well enough to be at home, provided they have adequate support, but they cannot be discharged as there are no options of care available to them. Since 2008, home help hours have been cut by 1.6 million hours. During that time there has been an increase of 160,000 in the number of people over the age of 65. Supporting older people to age at home is undoubtedly the best option, and there is widespread evidence to indicate that older people prefer to stay in their own homes. This vision was included in the last programme for Government and is part of the national positive ageing strategy and the Health Service Executive, HSE, service plan. Home care packages are key to implementing this vision.

Last September, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, trolley watch reported that there were 7,551 people on trolleys across the country. That is an average of 251 patients per day awaiting admission for inpatient treatment. This figure will very likely increase as the severe winter weather approaches.

Investing in home care packages is a major part of solving the hospital trolley crisis and overcrowding in emergency departments.

The charity ALONE recently conducted a cost comparison on the various options for caring for older people. The cost of an acute hospital bed is between €800 and €900 per day. The cost of providing home help three times a day is between €50 and €70. In other words, the money spent on keeping one person in an acute hospital bed would enable 18 elderly people to remain in their own homes with home help support in place.

A home care package would cost approximately €400 per week compared with paying €6,300 to keep that patient in an acute hospital bed for one week. For every €10 million the Government invests in home care packages, 480 elderly people could be enabled to remain in their homes with home help three times a day, seven days a week for an entire year. If these 480 people were to remain in acute hospital beds for one year, it would cost the Government €157,248,000. If we were to enable these people to stay in their homes with the support of a home care package it would cost the Government €9,984,000 and the Department of Health would save €147,264,000.

I ask the Government to take meaningful steps to alleviate the current crisis that exists in regard to our elderly in need of home help and home care packages. Currently, more than 4,000 elderly and ill people are waiting for home help and home care packages. This needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

I also raise the issue of the privatisation of the home help service, where the people, women mainly, who carry out this fabulous service are being replaced by private companies. Is the privatisation of this service a departmental guideline for the future?

I agree with the Deputy about the importance of home care packages. Home care services are critical to support older people to stay in their homes and communities and maintain their independence. The Government has increased investment in this very important service. The suggestion that there has been a cut in home help hours, and some people have suggested that, or home care packages is not the case. There has been increased investment and there is increased money available right across the system. For example, in the Revised Estimates earlier in the year, the Government provided an additional €41.4 million for home care on top of the original €330 million, and a further €23 million for the winter initiative and €10 million for new developments were also agreed for 2017. Therefore, there is increased investment. There is an increase from 10,437,000 to 10,570,000 in the number of home help hours for next year. There has been an increase from 15,450 to 16,750 in the number of people in receipt of a home care package. The number of intensive home care packages is being maintained at 190. Any suggestion that there is a reduction in these services is not accurate.

As the Deputy knows, and as I have said in the House earlier, that issue of delayed discharges is being dealt with. There are 100 fewer people waiting now than earlier in the year and the improvements are continuing in that area.

In terms of personal assistant services and home support hours for people with disabilities, the levels of those services in place have been maintained in 2016 and further money will be provided for them in 2017.

I take the Deputy's point that these are critical services and that we need to continue to invest in them, but given the resources available, there has been increased investment. That will mean more elderly people will get those home care packages, which I agree with the Deputy are vital.

I thank the Tánaiste for her reply. While I welcome the money that was allocated in June of this year, the need for funding is urgent. The most frequent inquiries I receive in my office, and I presume the same is the case for every other Deputy, relate to home help hours and home care packages. It has been Government policy since 1960 to support older people to stay at home for as long as possible. For this vision to become a reality, we need to have increased investment in home care packages and the home help service.

As I mentioned, for every €10 million the Government invests in home care packages, the Department of Health will save €147,264,000. Not only would this be a win for the Department in that it would be following through on its policies and it would also involve a huge financial saving. I repeat my call to make proper funding available to allow elderly people to vacate acute hospitals and return to their homes with the necessary supports to enable people to remain in their homes.

The bottom line is that this service is not reaching the elderly people who need it. The Taoiseach, in replying to the first Dáil question I tabled since I was elected to this House, told me that extra investment would be made and that people would not be left without a home help service. The situation is now worse than it ever was. I know that for a fact. Any Deputy working in his or her constituency knows that is a fact. The situation has got far worse. Regardless of what level of investment the Government is making in the service, it is not reaching people on the ground.

I know an elderly gentleman in west Cork who is 86 years of age, who has worked all his life for this country and cannot get a home help service. He has been told by the HSE that it cannot provide a home help service delivered by its people and that it will arrange for a private company to provide the service. The private company phones his family every night to tell them that it will not be able to provide cover for this man the next day, yet the people providing the home help service in the area have told me that they are quite willing to provide that care. There is a problem with the delivery of the service and it needs to be resolved.

The Deputy might forward us the details of that individual case. I will cite one example of where there are improvements. As of yesterday, nobody in Cork hospital or Kerry hospital due for discharge was delayed because of a lack of home care funding. That is a fact.

That is not the issue.

Those are two hospitals where there were no delayed discharges. As a result of the increased investment, extra home care packages are available to Cork University Hospital and other hospitals. In a situation where demand continues to grow, challenges remain in managing home care budgets. Of that there is no question. The additional money that has been invested gives greater flexibility to local managers to manage the home care budget in the interests of those who need it most. Clearly, prudent management of available resources is still needed but there is that increased investment. The revised level of service, for example, that has been provided this year is 10.57 million home help hours and 16,450 home care packages. That will increase by a further 300 in 2017. That is not to say that there are not perhaps individual cases such as the one the Deputy described where it can be difficult to access home care packages, but there is increased investment, increased availability and greater flexibility for the managers to make the most appropriate decisions for the people who need home care packages.