A couple of months ago, I raised concerns in this House regarding the shortages in the healthcare sector and the chronic issue of staff recruitment and staff retention, particularly in the provision of home care for the elderly.

The home care sector has been engaged in discussions with the Department of Health and the HSE since December regarding tender 2023, which will set out how the sector will operate in the next number of years. The current arrangements, known as tender 2018, have been extended by the HSE three times, which means home care providers have been unable to update staff and offer pay rises and compensation for travel time and mileage. Given the rising cost of living and inflationary pressures, being able to offer increased benefits to home care staff will be a significant factor in helping improve staff recruitment and retention, thus benefiting older people waiting for new or increased home care hours. Will the Taoiseach ensure tender 2023 is finalised as quickly as possible to help ensure care for elderly people who want to remain living in their own homes?

I thank the Deputy. The overall budget for home care this year is more than €700 million and our target is to provide just under 4 million home support hours this year, which is so important for keeping people in their homes and enabling them to be discharged from hospital in a timely manner, so it is money well spent, in my view. The existing tender for home support services was extended at the end of 2022, initially until the end of April and now until the end of June. The HSE is in negotiations with home care providers to progress a new tender and no final decision on the tender content has yet been reached, but the HSE's proposed extension of the existing contract arrangements will allow further time to finalise tender arrangements. This is a major priority for the Minister of State, Deputy Butler, and I am sure she will get it over the line as soon as possible.