On 5 October, in this House, the Minister for Health, Deputy Stephen Donnelly, stated: "Enabling people with care needs to continue to live independently at home for as long as possible is a priority for the Government." Today, we have 5,000 people waiting for home care support hours. According to private home care providers, 3,000 additional staff will be needed to fill the gap. Carers are not on the critical skills list for permit application on the basis of a review which states that evidence suggests the contracts of employment and terms and conditions being offered are significant factors in the recruitment challenges faced by the sector. In Wexford, we have 1,000 people waiting for home care. Yesterday, I spoke to a woman who was in tears as she is number 1,000 on the waiting list for home care support. She has a broken knee and a broken wrist and she cannot get any home care support.

Thank you, Deputy.

I ask Taoiseach to please outline a plan.

Real progress has been made on resourcing home care hours. As the Deputy will know, about 5 million additional hours were provided in 2021-----

I agree, but people cannot access them.

-----and these will be maintained in 2022. There is an issue with securing workers. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, is working on this with the sector. In the medium term, the issue is improving conditions and so forth but, in the immediate term, it is how we can make it more amenable for people to come into the sector. It is not an issue of resources any more; it is about securing the necessary workforce to provide for the demand out there.

On the same issue, this is a shocking crisis all over the country. The Taoiseach said earlier that the Government's primary role is protecting people's health and caring for people. People are being abandoned. Money is being thrown at this, but we cannot get people to do the work. I salute the carers and the people providing home help, but they are running from Billy to Jack doing what they can in limited time. People are ending up in hospital because they cannot get home care packages. The situation is as bad in Tipperary as it is in Wexford. All over the country, there is a huge shortage.

Christmas Day is approaching. Over Christmas Day and St. Stephen's Day, people will not have a visit from anybody. People will be left to fend for themselves. What kind of a moral compass does the Taoiseach, the Minister for Health and the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, have to do that to old people? There is no point blaming the crisis on the shortage of staff. The HSE should have seen this coming. We have been banging on about in here for years. The Government has thrown money at it throughout the pandemic, but it cannot get the operators. The bottom line is people are suffering and getting sicker and families are struggling. Some of these people do not have families. It is a terrible situation.

The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, does have a moral compass. I do not think the Deputy should suggest anything to the contrary. The number of people waiting for home support across different categories has reduced from over 9,000 at the start of 2020 to approximately 5,300 at the end of September 2021. The issue is recruitment of additional home support workers. That is the issue. Everything that can be done will be done. Demand has increased but resourcing has also increased. Significant additional people have come into the service to work. We now need to do everything we possibly can to recruit more people. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has established a cross-departmental strategic workforce advisory group to get the views of stakeholders and examine the workforce challenges in home support and nursing homes. That group will also look at the issues of recruitment, retention, training, career development and sustainable employment of home care workers into the future.