All Deputies have received representations from constituents who have family members in hospital awaiting discharge, in respect of whom they are seeking home help provision or access to residential care under the fair deal scheme. I will give some figures in this regard. According to the HSE, on Tuesday of last week the number of delayed discharges was 745, which is more than the number of people on trolleys. At that point, approximately 360 of that 745 had been waiting more than a month for discharge and 79 people had been waiting for more than six months.

Let us picture it. Last Tuesday, 79 people who had been ready for discharge before St. Patrick's Day were still in hospital. The problem is significant. In previous replies, the Minister mentioned increased capacity. These people want to move on. They do not want to be in hospital. They want to either move home with the support they need or move to nursing homes or step-down facilities. There are people on delayed discharge for extended periods, not a day or two, which I could understand. Half of that number - 360 people - had been waiting for discharge for more than a month while 79 people had been waiting for discharge since before St. Patrick's Day.

Figures released to our spokesperson on older people, Deputy Butler, show that 325 people in Cavan-Monaghan are waiting on the very service referred to by Deputy Curran, namely, home care supports. Home care supports provide the wraparound service that means people are not in acute hospitals and long-term nursing homes. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions not just with the Minister but with the Taoiseach. People in Cavan-Monaghan are waiting months and somebody has to die before home care supports are put in place. What will this Government do to take those 325 people off the waiting list for these supports?

To follow on from those figures, in March 2019, 105 people in Sligo-Leitrim were waiting for home help. By July, that figure had increased to 227, which is an increase of 122 or 120%. I am sure the numbers have not fallen since then. Yet I speak to people employed full time by the HSE to provide home care whose hours are being reduced. I cannot understand it. It is time for the Government to say whether it will provide home help because that seems to be the way it is. No hours are being provided in Sligo-Leitrim for anybody. As Deputy Curran noted, people have been in hospital for months and cannot get out of there because they have nobody to mind them.

I concur with the Deputies who spoke previously. I know of several people who are waiting for home help. One lady tried to come home but could not manage on her own and went back into hospital, which added to the hospital's waiting list. I ask the Minister to do something about it or to ask the Minister for Health to do something about it. He is doing things he was not asked to do such as giving people a third chance before they are arrested if they have drugs in their possession.

I thank the Deputies who raised this matter. It is something of which I am very conscious, particularly in Cavan-Monaghan. I have raised the matter with the Minister for Health, who is very conscious of it. While the HSE is doing everything it can, we need to do more in this area. I will again raise this issue with the Minister.