This is a question for the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly. I refer to the promise to address home care waiting lists. We know that 7,200 older people who have been approved for home care packages are on waiting lists and being denied that right. We also know that many of those on waiting lists are in hospital and that the question of efficiency in hospitals is affected by this. The budget provided for the allocation of an additional 1 million hours, but that is less than one quarter of what is required to clear the waiting lists. How does the Government propose to address the remaining three quarters on waiting lists?

I thank the Deputy. The reality is that if we had four times the amount of money provided for in the budget, we would still not have the personnel required to deliver services. The figure for this year is €52 million. That is why I have committed to developing a statutory home care scheme to be unveiled in January 2020. Next year the pilot statutory home care scheme will begin. The only way we will address the waiting lists for home help is by having the scheme underpinned by statute, proper conditions for those who deliver the service, a centralised database to effectively manage the delivery of the service and a regulatory aspect. The statutory scheme is under Sláintecare and is committed to in 2021. In the meantime we have added 1 million home help hours in an attempt to alleviate the issues in hand.