I want to return to the issue that Deputy Mary Lou McDonald raised with the Taoiseach yesterday, that is, home help hours. In recent weeks, we have learned that the HSE has effectively suspended the allocation of home help hours to new applicants until November of this year. The HSE also confirmed that there is to be a reduction in the number of recycled hours or reallocating of hours. This comes at a time more than 6,000 people are waiting for home care supports. There is no doubt that this will have a major impact on older citizens in need of care and their families, and on people with disabilities and their carers. It will also have a major impact on the wider community because reducing home help hours places pressures on our hospitals as a result of delayed discharges. It forces older people who are fit to be at home into nursing homes. These people want to be at home. They want to be in their own environment. They have been medically discharged and can go home provided the supports are in place. However, they cannot go home because the home care supports are simply not in place as a result of this decision.

All of this is happening because the HSE says it needs to balance its budget for 2019. The Taoiseach said yesterday, in response to a question from Deputy McDonald, that the budget for home care supports has increased. I accept that, although it has increased significantly less than the amount we in Sinn Féin called for at the time. The HSE has said that the increase had not translated to an increase in the number of hours of care that was expected. The reality is that the budget increase has been eaten up by demographic pressures and service provision. It is not even standing still compared to last year.

The real measure of the performance, if we need a real measure, is to look at some of the facts. There are now in excess of 6,000 people waiting for home care supports. Countless others have had their home care provision cut by half an hour here or an hour there. Now, we have a freeze on reallocating additional hours to patients until November and the recycling of other hours.

We know home care support is good value for money. We know it represents excellent value for money in the immediate term, the medium term and the long term because it allows people to remain in their homes and go safely from hospital to their own environments and settings but, without the home care supports or home help hours, patients are forced to remain in hospitals. This represents a drastic inefficiency within the health service. It has a significant cost and is a major burden on patients and their families. Individuals either have to remain in hospital or nursing homes or else families are forced to seek private operators and pay for the costs themselves. Neither of these options represents value for money - we know that clearly.

I am asking the Taoiseach what we asked yesterday. Will he give us an undertaking to look at where the funding can be found within the HSE budget to ensure that additional home help hours are provided for the rest of the year for those patients who are in need of them? This would ease the budgetary pressures on other sections of our health service. Will the Taoiseach commit to doing this quickly?

I think we all acknowledge the enormous value of home care in terms of helping people who are sick, elderly or disabled to remain in their homes for longer, thus not having to go into a nursing home. Home care helps patients to get out of hospital quicker, thus freeing up hospital beds for others who need them. There is no disagreement in the House about that.

I spoke to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Daly, about this matter yesterday. I understand there will be a debate on it in the House tonight. We are trying to get all the information about this. There seems to be quite a lot of variation from one community healthcare area to another. It may not be the case, as has been reported, that there will be no new hours until November, at least not in all parts of the country. We are trying to get a fix on that in advance of the debate tonight.

Resources are being increased for home help and home care. The budget for home help and home care in 2015 was a little over €300 million. This year, it is €446 million, which is a 50% increase in four years. While there has been an increase in population in the past four years, the population has aged slightly in the past four years and the cost of home care has increased in the past four years, they have not increased by 50%. It is reasonable for us, as citizens and taxpayers, to expect a much better service for a 50% increase in funding. It is the responsibility of the HSE and Government to ensure that happens.

An extra €30 million is provided for this year. This will provide 18.3 million hours in home support. That is an increase of 800,000 on last year. That is 800,000 more hours this year than last year, which is a significant increase. I am informed, on the basis of a note I was provided with earlier today, that this takes account of the Tyco decision and the fact that home help staff are paid for travelling time. We are trying to get to the bottom of this ourselves.

We are not getting extra money in Kerry.

We are keen to ensure that the extra 800,000 hours of home help that is funded and that has been voted for by this Oireachtas is delivered to the people who need it.

I recognise the fact that there has been an increase in the budget, but there has also been an increase in the cost of providing the service and an increase in the number of people who need this service. We know all of that in respect of delayed discharges and the number of people who are on trolleys.

I am sure every Deputy in the House knows of multiple cases in their constituencies involving people in our acute hospitals who have been medically discharged and who should be in their homes but who are not at home because there are no home care supports for them.

Let us look at the numbers. The Taoiseach, coming from the medical profession, knows this. It costs the State €6,000 per week to have someone in an acute bed. It costs €160 if they can get the home care support package. This represents huge inefficiencies. We talk about inefficiencies and wastage in health. It makes no sense that patients who are medically discharged are not able to go back into their home environment because a blunt instrument from the HSE says it has run out of money and cannot provide home care supports for them. There is a need for both additional allocation and more money. We argued for that at the time but regardless, we now know the facts. We now know there are 6,000 people on waiting lists, that countless others have had their hours cut, that home help hours will not be provided until November and that the HSE is not going to recycle or reallocate home help hours when they come back into the system. We need more than a debate. The Taoiseach is in charge and his Minister is in charge. This is huge inefficiency and waste and it is causing serious distress to patients, their families and their carers. I ask the Taoiseach to act quickly on this.

You have made your point. I call the Taoiseach.

We are going to act on this and the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is going to meet the chief officers of the nine community healthcare organisations next week to see how we can resolve this issue. I come back to the basic, important, and fundamental point that the budget for home help has increased by 50% in four years. It has gone up from €300 million to €450 million this year. Wage inflation is about 2% or 3% a year, while demographics in aging might account for 1% or 2% extra a year. That is nowhere close to a 50% increase. What is happening commonly, unfortunately, in health and social care is that huge amounts of additional money are being put in; much more than is required to cover demographics and inflation. Yet, citizens, patients and people are not getting the increased service they should be getting. We must have learned by now that when it comes to health and social care, just allocating more money all the time is not the solution. If it were, the 50% increase in the past four years would have provided a much greater and better service. We need to listen to the advice of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council on that, as well as to our own common sense. Major increases in spending on health and social care in recent years to record levels, beyond demographics or inflation, have not provided the better services that people deserve, that patients need and for which taxpayers pay. The solution is not always more money.