Deputy Emer Higgins and I published a Private Members’ Bill in regard to the regulation of home care providers. In fairness to the Department of Health, it is progressing with the drafting of legislation and new regulation in this whole area. One of the issues it needs to put in place is an IT system for the HSE in regard to the management of home care because it is currently all paper-based. Funding was set aside for this last year but my understanding is that the IT system is still not in place. Can this issue be dealt with? Many people are being provided with home care but having a paper-based system is not the most efficient way to manage its provision.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is not a funding issue. Funding was provided in both the national service plan in 2021 and 2022 to progress the home support management system. The Minister of State with responsibility for mental health and older people is aware that an IT system is an essential foundation to drive reform of home support and to make it more efficient and responsive to people's needs. In this regard, the identification and procurement of an ICT system is being progressed by the HSE. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, met with the national director responsible for this project recently and the urgent requirement for an ICT solution for home support services was the subject of the meeting. A further meeting between the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, Department officials and the HSE to progress this is scheduled for tomorrow.