I want to highlight the case of a woman who lives in County Cavan. She is a wheelchair user. She acquired a disability earlier in her life but has lived a very independent life, worked until retirement and never looked for assistance. She never needed it but now she does. She has a shoulder injury and is awaiting approval for surgery on it. She has been approved for home support care but is waiting months for home care assistance to be provided. She cannot get into or out of bed without assistance, which means she is putting a lot of pressure on her family, particularly her sister, who is working full time. She phones every week but the HSE still has not identified any carers. As she says, this is not just her; there are other people in a similar situation. There are people waiting to get out of hospitals, nursing homes and so on but they cannot because there is no home care provided.

We just looked at the situation with home care. There are many home care assistants leaving that profession because they are burned out. They cannot take annual leave because there is no one to replace them. They have too many clients so they are overworked. They are travelling the back roads of Cavan, and we know the state those roads are in. There is the wear and tear on their cars, replacing tyres and getting repairs done. They cannot afford to replace the car. They were very badly impacted by recent fuel increases and there was nothing provided to account for that.

We need to seriously look at the home care situation. We need a lot more carers but will not get them if the pay and conditions do not improve. It is serious. If people cannot stay in their own homes, they will end up in nursing homes and that will cost the State much more money, plus it is not what anybody wants. This needs to be raised with the Minister for Health. We need a plan to increase the number of home care assistants immediately.