I raise the issue of the home care cash grant, which is administered by the HSE. It is offered to older people who have been allocated home care hours but for whom the HSE has failed to recruit staff to fulfil those hours. Therefore, the onus is put on older people or their spouses to advertise for carers and to recruit them. This means, potentially, bringing strangers into those people's homes and having cash on hand to pay carers. Recipients of this support are then meant to reclaim their money through the grant. This situation also puts the onus on the older person to ensure that all aspects of the employee's entitlements are adhered to, such as PAYE, leave and work permits, where applicable. This aspect must be included on their home insurance. It is also a requirement for the carer employed to have received training in moving and handling skills. How on earth are older people supposed to know what training a carer has? How are they supposed to do all this paperwork, on top of being vulnerable in their homes and having their elderly spouses look after them? This scheme is not fit for purpose and should be abolished.

I think there is some confusion here. Personalised budgets are only facilitated for people with disabilities; they are not part of the older persons' model. As we speak, 55,000 people will receive home care at a cost of €670 million annually. The tender for these services is currently up for renewal and a new call for tenders will be issued on 1 January 2023. We are considering including personalised budgets in that tender. As I speak now, however, older people receiving home care have that allocated through the public health nurse, via public, private and voluntary providers, and there is no opportunity for older people to avail of personalised budgets. There is, though, an opportunity for people with disabilities and with personal hours to avail of such personalised budgets.