Many families I represent in rural counties Carlow and Kilkenny have been granted home support services for their relatives, due to illness or advancing age. In theory, these families in Kildavin, Callan, Bagenalstown and Bennettsbridge have State support to care for their family members at home but in reality, in many cases, there are zero HSE staff to fulfil these home support hours. Hard-pressed, full-time working families are left to take matters into their own hands and draw up family rotas for covering the care of their loved ones. The issue is particularly pronounced in rural areas of my constituency, especially over weekends. Families have been told by HSE staff that if their mother were living in a town, she would have home support but the organisation cannot get the staff to go up long lanes or into rural communities. This is not acceptable. It is not fair for people who have paid their taxes for their entire lives to not get the support they need, when they need it. What is the Government doing to ensure that there is an increased focus on recruiting and providing home support workers in rural areas and, in particular, to provide home support at weekends?

I thank the Deputy for the important question. I will ask the Minister with responsibility for older people to meet her to discuss what more can be done. We are spending more on home support now than ever before. The home support budget for this year is the largest ever at €840 million, delivering more than 24 million hours of home support to more than 60,000 people at any one time. However, the Deputy pointed out the disparity between rural parts of her constituency and less rural parts of the country and how we can recruit and retain staff in those areas. The work the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, is leading on is around the need to get to the statutory home care scheme. That will provide much greater clarity in terms of funding, employment and structures than the current situation. In the here and now, I will ask the Minister of State what more can be done to help people in Carlow and Kilkenny and I will ask him to meet the Deputy to discuss this matter.