I welcomed the 1 million extra home support hours which were announced last week as part of budget 2020. As we all know, over 7,000 older people are waiting for home care supports. Some of them are in acute hospitals and cannot get a reasonable timeline for transfer of care. The 1 million hours that have been promised equate to approximately three hours for each of these 7,000 people. When will these 1 million hours come on stream? At what stage will the older and vulnerable people who need these supports know that these extra hours will be there for them?

I thank Deputy Butler for her continued interest in and support for this matter. I can confirm that the 1 million additional home help hours, which will bring next year's allocation to 19.2 million, will be available from 1 January. These home help hours will support people to continue living in their own homes. I have already indicated that some of these hours will be used to test the statutory home care scheme, which I have mentioned previously. We intend to run a pilot of that scheme next year, starting in January 2020. I will give the Deputy further details on that as they come to hand. They will be available from 1 January.