I will talk about home care for the elderly. I want to raise a heartbreaking case that highlights the deepening crisis in our healthcare for the elderly. I raised this last week and before on numerous occasions but nothing has improved. We are failing our older people. Young people are working, taking care of their elderly parents and looking after their own families and they have very little support.

I was contacted by the daughter of an elderly couple in Donegal who have been completely failed by the system. Her mother is 81 years old, has dementia and urgently needs care. While waiting on treatment, her condition deteriorated dramatically. She suffered repeated falls, loss of mobility and now requires assistance in every aspect of daily living. Despite being approved for home care, the family was told there are simply not enough carers available to provide this woman the care she needs. Instead of receiving care at home her condition worsened to the point she had to be hospitalised in Letterkenny. Her 85-year-old husband, who has a serious heart problem and is waiting for a pacemaker and surgery, has effectively been her stand-alone carer. The HSE delivered a hospital bed, a hoist and equipment to the family home, but what use is equipment without trained carers to operate it?

This is not an isolated case. It happens to families right across Donegal and Ireland. Patients are being assessed, approved for home care hours and discharged from hospitals only to discover there are no staff available to deliver these hours. Families are left carrying an impossible burden. Many patients end up back in the hospital because the care they were promised never materialises. We need urgent investment in our home care services, recruitment and retention of carers and a guarantee that when carers are approved it actually is approved.

Older people deserve dignity and families deserve support. We cannot continue to approve carers on paper while leaving vulnerable people without the service they deeply need. I am asking for the Minister to come in here and let us have a debate on this. To be honest, there is more than one case. This is just one email I got from a lady this morning in Donegal. It is happening weekly that people are being approved home care hours, they are sent home and when they get home there is nobody there to look after them.