The programme for Government includes a commitment to introduce a statutory scheme to support people to live in their own homes by providing them with access to high-quality regulated home care. The lack of home help support is adding to the chaos in some hospitals in rural areas. The chronic shortage of millions of home help hours means that doctors are delaying the discharge of vulnerable elderly patients. The issue here seems to be the lack of enticements for people to work in the area of home help. The people who currently work in the sector do not have pensionable occupations or proper rates of wages and regulation. It is now time for the Government to put home help on a statutory footing so that it is enshrined in legislation as a sector.

I thank the Deputy. As he will be aware, we are putting record amounts of money into home care at present. The problem is no longer the money; it is finding staff who are willing to work in the area. We have plans for a statutory home care scheme. We have opened up the work permit system for home carers to come in from abroad and work in home care in Ireland. We have not yet seen the impact of that because it is relatively new. I will ask the Ministers of State, Deputies Richmond and Butler, to examine whether we should have an employment regulation order for home carers. When we did it in child care, it created a salary scale, terms and conditions and benefits that have made child care more attractive as a profession. Perhaps the same principle might apply in home care as well.