Brian Stanley
Laois · Independent · Ireland
“We are going through an epidemic of domestic abuse and violence. In 2025, the Garda had over 67,000 calls in relation to domestic abuse. Seven women were murdered last year, and in many of those cases, it was by a family member, a partner or somebody known closely to the victim.”
“Those fundamentals cannot be ignored. Are supporters of partition really saying that we can continue on this small island with 14 different departments in each jurisdiction working back to back, often in competition with each other? Are they saying that having Twenty-six Counties in the EU and Six Counties out of it makes economic sense?”
“Those who still argue for partition ignore the fact that in a reunified 32-county state, the pension liabilities of those workers in the Six Counties who accrued pension entitlements by paying into the British national insurance system and the British exchequer or employment pensions would receive that portion of their pension liability.”
“Unfortunately, I do not get any sense of urgency from the Minister of State that we are going to have laws introduced in September or October, and that is the crucial issue. Yes, we have rules now, and she listed them out in relation to the signs. However, they are being ignored.”
“The cost is €2.6 billion for the diplomatic mission alone. There is also MI6 and the massive military machine and capacity, including the army, the navy and the Royal Air Force. I saw a figure of €60.2 billion for 2025 and 2026. That amount is due to rise sharply to meet its increased military capabilities.”
“The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is the increase in the number of injuries, including those involving young children, relating to e-scooters and e-bikes. Ten have been killed.”
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“There are very basic measures called for here, including to implement a rent freeze - the Government is going to the do the opposite on 1 March, which is terrible - or implement a living wage. Introducing a cost-of-disability payment is key. Also, we need to speed up the implementation of Sláintecare and get a public health system. Energy credits should be reinstated, particularly for low-income households. The Government should not shy away from taxing the billionaires. The billionaires have the cash. Other countries do it. We need to take a bit of it off them and give it to those people who are at the bottom end. All the statistics show that the gap between those at the bottom and those at the top has widened. We cannot continue going like this. We cannot have a situation like America.”
“There are significant extra costs for people with disabilities. Last year - when I say last year, I refer to the budget of October 2024, when we were on the cusp of an election - there was €400 extra in a cost-of-living payment for disability. There was €300 extra in fuel allowance in one payment alone. The living alone allowance was up €300. Electricity credits were up €200 each time. There was €230 extra on the basic Christmas bonus. Last October, there was no election but there were no increases like this. Zero. They all came and went but the expenses that people have are still the same. In fact, they have actually gone up because of the rate of inflation, particularly for essentials - and this is the key point - like food, heating, electricity, health insurance and health costs, which people should not have to pay.”
“We need to get Sláintecare, which is a universal public health system, in place. We are way behind the rest of Europe. Health costs are putting a huge burden, on top of the things outlined here in the past half an hour, on top of households and particularly vulnerable people. We need equal access to treatment regardless of ability to pay. It has to be based on medical needs alone. We are completely out of step and in the Dark Ages compared with the rest of Europe, including countries that are much poorer than us. We need to get that in place and move forward as quickly as possible to it. I want to mention something in support of one big measure in the motion. I refer to the extra costs of disability. The basic payment is at €232 a week. It is much lower than the poverty threshold, which is deemed to be at €291.”
“They live on one pension. She is an adult dependant, and it is their only form of income. They have the most basic cover. All they have is the minimum. They are terrified to let it lapse because both have health issues. A sum of €4,500 per annum is not affordable for pensioners who are just on a single State pension. They couple in question are in a very difficult situation. They have to pay rent, heating, electricity, shopping and home repairs. It will really cause financial hardship. There is a copy of their demand, which they shared with me. We are supposed to moving to universal healthcare, under Sláintecare. We have a year or so left to go in this, but we have made snail's pace progress. I accept that Covid-19 held it up for a year or so, but we are still nowhere near where we should be.”
“I welcome this motion and thank Deputy Healy for bringing it forward. It is timely. Personal debt is up. Nearly 300,000 households are in arrears with their electricity bills. Profits are up massively, as has been outlined. Private health insurance has gone out through the roof. The motion outlines a number of serious measures that need to be taken. I want to add the issue of private health insurance. Unfortunately, people, particularly the elderly and those who have health issues, have to take it out. Costs have escalated in recent years. They are not going up once a year, not twice, but three times a year. In the past 12 months, VHI have increased premiums on three occasions. Laya has ramped up prices. All of them have ramped up prices. One Laois couple, who are 81- and 82-years-old, have seen their policy go up to €4,506.66 per annum.”
“People who drive them need to be licensed, taxed and insured. We should also make sure they know the rules of the road. We cannot continue like this. I also support the legislation on scrambler bikes.”
“We are asking for a bit of common sense here. Stripped lines across a white background do not tell people anything. The figure 60 tells them that this is the maximum speed. This is a common-sense measure. The speeds on local roads in Laois are crazy. There is a cohort of drivers driving like lunatics on them and that needs to stop. I want to raise the issue of e-bikes as well. I am in favour of e-bikes but now some of them are higher powered than motorbikes. If anyone here ever had a Honda 50 or a Honda 100, they had to have tax, insurance and a driver's licence for it. People can now have an e-bike that can do 70 km/h and 80 km/h. One passed me the other day and I was doing 65 km/h. He flew passed me on an e-bike that had tires the width of a good motorbike. That cannot be allowed to continue. We have to regulate them.”
“Drinagh, which is in the Mountmellick area, is on the N80 and also needs some traffic calming measures where traffic is coming from the west and into Mountmellick town. I want to raise the issue of local roads. We reduced the speed limit on local roads to 60 km/h, and this is a bone of contention for me. In my naivety, I thought we would see 80 km/h signs being removed and being replaced with 60 km/h signs all over the country. However, we got a white sign with lines across it. The only person in this room who can probably tell me what that means is the Ceann Comhairle because she is a former truck driver. I asked a number of TDs if they knew what the sign means and none of them did. We are the people who made the laws. Those signs are ineffective and need to be changed. We need a 60 km/h sign.”
“Traffic volumes are up, speeds are up, and mobile phone use is up. I want to highlight the N80 that goes through Laois. Safety measures are needed in the village of Arles, which local councillors and local people have been years looking for. I handed in petitions to Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, and Laois County Council demanding that traffic calming measure be put at each end of the village and that it be made safer for pedestrians with a pedestrian crossing, proper footpaths and improved signage. Laois County Council made a submission to TII long ago but it is not being funded. I want the Minister of State to take note of this. This needs to be funded by the Department and by TII.”
“I want more home ownership, rental housing and people in secure accommodation, but this Bill will not do that. It will pile pressure on people. I am not just coming in here to have a go. I am saying this because of what I see happening on the ground”
“The evidence does not support that. The evidence at a committee did not show that. Between 2003 and 2007, the construction of new homes hit record levels, including over 90,000 in one year. Did rents go down? Not a hope. They did not. They increased dramatically. That is what happened. The only beneficiaries of the Bill will be large rack renting landlords. I appeal to the Minister of State. Section 8 is absolutely shocking and will put huge pressure on people. I ask the Government not to try to force through the Bill, in particular section 8, and instead introduce effective rent controls for counties like Laois where rents are rocketing. I ask the Government to increase the support for Laois County Council and other councils around the country to build more cost-rental homes and improve housing affordability.”
“It will hurt tens of thousands of households that are already trying to keep their heads above the waterline in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. It is a real difficulty for younger people who are over the income threshold for social housing and do not have a hope of being able to save a deposit. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael spoke about home ownership. People can forget about it because they will not be able to save for a deposit. They are trapped in private rented accommodation. I am sure the Minister and Minister of State know an increasing number of people who are going past middle age, as well as elderly people who are paying massive rents; such people come to me. Where will they go when they hit pension age? The Government's contention is that the increase in the supply of housing will reduce rents.”
“A four-bedroom house in Foxburrow costs €2,500 per month. We have had the highest eight quarterly increases we have ever seen in the county, despite the fact that we have RPZs. The race is on for landlords to get to the top of the market and market rent. On top of all that, there can be annual increases of up to 2%. Who in the name of God can afford that? This will cause a catastrophe for people. Existing tenants in homes and apartments will be put under huge pressure with higher rents. The Government is introducing measures it has said will provide tenants with security, but the Minister of State and I know how it works. We know how landlords will apply pressure. There will be strategic evictions and notices to quit because people will not be able to pay the rent. I appeal to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael not to push through the Bill.”
“The average tenancy lasts about three and a half years. Laois renters will be particularly hard hit, given the evidence of what is already going on in that sector in the county. Many tenants are under huge pressure and regularly tell me about this. They have to go short of meals, clothes and a whole range of things to try to keep the roof over their heads. They have to turn off heating. The RTB figures for last year show that rents in Laois for new tenancies had jumped 16.7%, higher than existing tenancies. The latest figures for new rents in Laois show that there has been another increase of 15.3% on existing tenancies. That is the current situation, before 1 March. A crummy one-bedroom apartment now costs €,1750 per month. A three-bedroom house in Kilminchy costs €2,100 per month.”
“The Minister may not have noticed, and maybe Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have not noticed, that tenants in private rental accommodation are already under huge stress. In case things were not bad enough, the Government is now going to throw them to the mercy of rack-renting landlords from 1 March. Whatever limits and calming effect rent pressure zones had in slowing down rent increases will all be gone. New rents will be pitched to the highest in the area. The sky will be the limit. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael surely know this. They know what is going on out there the same as I do. They know what is going to happen. Tenants going into new apartments or houses, or existing ones that become vacant, face extortionate increases. Tenancies do not just change every six years. The Government knows there is regular turnover.”
“The Department halted it and it has reached a deadlock because the approved housing body that was to partner with Laois Domestic Abuse Service was deemed not to meet the criteria by the Department. That is fair enough but I ask the Taoiseach to assess Sophia Housing. It is either able to meet the criteria or not. If it cannot, will another partner, in the form of another approved housing body or Laois County Council, be sought to get the facility in place?”
“Laois is one of nine counties that still does not have a domestic abuse refuge. Over the past 15 years I have been highlighting the fact that victims and their families are sent miles to other counties to a refuge away from services, such as their local GP, schools and family support. They are already traumatised by the abuse and this can further traumatise them. Unfortunately, there is an upsurge in domestic abuse, including violence, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. It can be carried out by men and women but mainly by men. A site was purchased on the Mountrath Road in Portlaoise by Laois County Council over two years ago to provide eight apartment units and a service centre.”
“The following towns are short of services according to parents, providers and the childcare committee: Durrow, Abbeyleix, Rathdowney, Graiguecullen, Mountrath, Mountmellick, Portarlington and Portlaoise. Every town in the county needs them. We have had a population surge in the last 15 years which is going to continue according to the Government's plans. I am not against that, but we need more child places. My ask is for one of those eight premises to be designated in Laois. We need it desperately.”
“The announcement by the Government of the new childcare scheme is welcome. The idea is that the Government will buy or build childcare facilities, particularly in areas where there are shortages. It is a small start. Similar to a lot of Members of the House, I would like it to be a lot more expansive but it is a welcome start. It is reported that €177 million will be available over a five-year period and eight buildings will be bought or acquired in the first year. There is a desperate shortage of childcare and early years learning places in Laois. The 84 registered places in the county are full. Parents contact me to say that they cannot get a place for their child, particularly when it comes to full-day services because a lot of people in Laois are commuting.”
“We need to help people who are successful applicants and those who have a reasonable case to put forward. Those who cannot obviously cannot stay. We need to help people to integrate with education, training and work. We need a fair, efficient and rules-based system. I appeal to the Minister to revisit the family reunification piece. That is a cruel proposal, and it needs to be revised.”
“As the previous speaker said, if there is an extremely right-wing government in England, which is highly possible in the form of Mr. Farage and his pals, we could wind up in a very difficult situation here. We need to reach binding agreements with Britain as regards what happens. It is accepted that the vast majority come over the artificial border on this island; that is a fact we cannot ignore. It is a difficult one to deal with but it has to be dealt with by the Department of foreign affairs while there is a friendly or reasonable enough government in Britain, even if it may be criticised in other ways. We need to be doing it while the Labour Party Government is in place because, my God, if Reform UK is elected into government there, it will change it.”
“We know it recommended that large centres be owned, run and controlled by the State. That has not happened. There is money being made and some people have got very wealthy off the back of this. Being honest, there is rampant profiteering and all sorts of chancers who have made huge money off the back of it and have got very well off in a short period. We need to move to those facilities recommended in the Day report. As far as I know, the only one we have made progress with is the Citywest centre and I welcome that. We have to recognise that England, Scotland and Wales - three foreign countries - are not in the European Union but we have a common travel area with them. They are outside the EU, so this EU agreement means nothing.”
“Tusla has to try to arrange bed and breakfast for them and to supervise these arrangements. Let us think about this for a minute and try to work it out. Unless there has been a change recently, this is what is happening and it is not acceptable. We must have a better way of dealing with these cases. If an unaccompanied child or minor arrives from a safe country, the safe country needs to be contacted to say, "We have a child from your country here" and they need to be safely returned into the hands of safe authorities. If they are from a country where there is any risk of war, persecution, famine, harm or exploitation coming to that child, they should not be returned. Let me be clear about that. On the issue of the IPAS centres, the Day report has been gathering dust for a good few years.”
“That is not a system that is working or is fit for purpose. You cannot look after the genuine cases if you are going to have a system that works like that. The resources are not there to cater for them and they are not being targeted for the help or supports they need. I do not have a problem with the approach being taken in respect of those convicted of serious crime. If we are being honest, we must accept that the right to stay can be terminated for people who are convicted of serious crime. We have to be careful when it comes to the issue of unaccompanied minors because children who are coming from dangerous countries, after fleeing a dangerous situation, must be cared for. However, my understanding is that many of these children are being brought to the front door of Tusla and being left there to be looked after.”
“The return and departure of unsuccessful applicants is not verified. At the Committee of Public Accounts two years ago, I asked the Secretary General of the Department what happened when somebody fails all the appeals processes, including through the courts. I was told that they send a letter to the last known address. How do you verify what is going to happen there? These people are living in rental accommodation much of the time, so much of it is temporary by nature. They may have moved on. There needs to be verification where somebody fails. Where somebody is successful, we have to make sure we look after them and they are treated properly, but where somebody fails the system and the appeals, we have to be able to verify. We can verify that less than half of those who have failed over the past three years have left the State.”
“We have to recognise that people - mothers and fathers - are separated from their children. I appeal to the Minister to go back on that. I am not too sure where the ask came from to put in that three-year clause. We have to be fair about this. We have people who may be working here in Ireland who are separated from their children and their partners, wives, husbands or whatever else. That is a cruel system. Imagine any of us being exposed to that. That is not fair and I appeal to the Minister to change it and to make it fairer, particularly for immediate families. That is the big point I wish to make here today. On return and departure, I want a fair, efficient and rules-based system. If something is not rules-based, it does not work. I do not have a problem with the rules being implemented once they are done in a fair and proper manner.”
“Without a doubt, the system we have had to date has not been fit for purpose and there have been several problems outlined here on that. The delays in the system have not been fair to anybody, particularly genuine and successful applicants. We need to be able to deal much more quickly with people who are fleeing war, persecution or famine. We need to be able to help them. If the faster processing times that have been set out happen, I will welcome the 12 weeks and the further 12 weeks on the second appeal. That will benefit successful applicants. Unsuccessful applicants, obviously, will have to leave. The current system is way too slow and there are examples of people waiting years within the system. The family reunification implications in the Bill are cruel and excessive, particularly in immediate families.”
“It would lesson the gridlock in Portlaoise town and in Mountmellick, and it would free up hundreds of acres for housing development. A lot of housing development is being pushed to Portlaoise but we do not have the infrastructure. Both Mountmellick and Portlaoise need relief roads. The Government cannot keep ignoring it.”
“The towns of Mountmellick and Portlaoise are gridlocked much of the day. People living on the Ballyfin Road, Harpur's Lane and Greenmill Lane have huge difficulties, including the person speaking here, trying to get out onto that road. Trucks have to pass under a very low bridge. They often hit the bridge and everything stops for a number of hours. In the short time I have, I will call for small roundabouts at the junctions of Ballyfin Road, Greenmill Lane and Harpur's Lane. However, we really need the Portlaoise northern orbital route, which will connect the N80 at Fairgreen right across to the Dublin Road. That is a priority project of Laois County Council, as is the Mountmellick bypass, but the Government does not seem to be listening. I want the Government to take this on board here today. It would not just shorten journeys.”
“The N80 goes through the town centres of Portlaoise and Mountmellick. It is causing chaos in both towns and no progress is being made on relief roads. Mountmellick relief road was promised 20 years ago. All traffic from the midlands and the west, including a large number of HGVs, is going through the town centre of Mountmellick trying to negotiate tricky junctions, going through O'Connell Square and past the very busy secondary school. A route has been selected. The surveys have been done. The council has played its part. However, it is being ignored for decades by the Government and that is not good enough. Portlaoise has two national secondary routes going through it, namely, the N78 and the N80. The N80 is the one I live on. There is a huge population around it. The population of Portlaoise is increasing.”
“On the day when the Minister of State or the Minister is down to cut the ribbon, or before it – it will be a great day when it happens – will they visit St. Anne's ward? They have to see it. They were in Limerick opening the new hospital wings there. The wings are needed and that commitment was fulfilled.”
“That is fine but St. Anne's ward is HIQA-approved already. The rooms are en suite. The Minister of State needs to have a look at this, as he has responsibility for older people. The Minister also needs to look at it. I say this in a very positive way. They will soon be there cutting the ribbon. That will be a good day for care of the elderly. I have argued long and hard here for the past 15 years, as have other Deputies, for the new wing in Mountmellick, and it is there now. We have a chronic shortage of nursing home beds. Not a week goes by but families are looking to get their loved ones into Mountmellick or Abbeyleix. The population in the county is mushrooming, especially of the elderly. There is a real chance here to get a gain.”
“It has en suite rooms. I urge the Minister, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, and the Minister of State with responsibility for the elderly, Deputy O'Donnell, not to let it be boarded up and lie idle. This would bring the capacity of the hospital from 58 to 83. The new wing will soon be open. It is important that St. Anne's ward is not boarded up. We must gain from the €31 million that is being spent in Mountmellick.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. We have a huge shortage of nursing home beds in County Laois. There is also a shortage of respite beds and step-down beds when people are discharged from acute units such as in Portlaoise and Tullamore hospitals. The population, in particular of the elderly, is increasing rapidly. If we are going to spend €38 million on a new building with a 50-bed capacity, which I wholeheartedly welcome, we need to get extra capacity for that money. However, the plan is to move out the existing 50 patients to the new wing and to close the two existing wards. I have been in the unit and I accept that one of those wards is not fit to be used again, as it needs to be refurbished. However, St. Anne's ward was extensively refurbished in recent years. It is a fantastic facility and it is in perfect condition.”
“I ask the Minister to ensure that St. Anne's Ward in St. Vincent's Hospital in Mountmellick is kept in use when the new wing costing €31 million is opened to increase the capacity of the hospital from 58 to 83 and to make a statement. The Minister must use taxpayers' money well. She should not waste it.”
“The towns and villages of County Laois need infrastructure upgrades. Uisce Éireann must put locally-based engineers and contacts in place for county councillors and TDs and reduce exorbitant costs for the connections.”
“Local-based staff to deal with issues and a forum for local councillors, democratically elected and accountable to their electorate, was taken away. Uisce Éireann promised to provide local contacts. It promised to provide local engineers. If anybody can find them, they should show them to me because I have difficulty and I know other public representatives have difficulties finding them. That has been one of the huge gaps along with the local knowledge being lost. As the existing county council workers go, this is going to be a problem. The simple fact is that these services should have been left with local authorities. Where there is a need for cross-county infrastructure such as the Shannon pipeline, that can be done in the same way that the National Roads Authority builds roads across counties.”
“One couple in Laois was asked for in excess of €20,000 to provide a water connection quite a short distance. That is completely over the top. It is €6,200 for the first 10 m, and €800 per metre after that. Do the sums on that and you will not be long clocking up between €20,000, €30,000 or €40,000. That needs to be revised. I argued with then Minister Phil Hogan on the floor of this House on the issue of Uisce Éireann and the creation of it 13 years or 14 years ago. We had many a head-to-head over it. I was not in favour of it, and I am still not in favour of the creation of it. We are stuck with it, but as has been said already, it took away local democracy. Local knowledge of the network and services was lost. Local engineers were lost. Local water keepers, who are essential, were lost.”
“They are all listed as red according to Irish Water. In terms of wastewater, Graiguecullen, Borris-in-Ossory, Ballinakill and The Swan are in need of upgrade. All of those towns and villages need infrastructure to meet housing demand. We cannot just keep putting all the housing in Portlaoise. It is good that there is housing being built, but the town of Portlaoise is absolutely gridlocked with traffic most week days and even on weekends. The roads around the town are chock-a-block. GP surgeries are booked out. Schools are full and services are under huge pressure. Let me say this about the issue of connection costs. The connection costs since Uisce Éireann took over have skyrocketed. They have gone way ahead of where they were with the local authorities.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak on this debate. The provision of water supply and wastewater infrastructure is critical for sustainable development. With housing being our number one priority, we must have the infrastructure to go with it. In County Laois, despite the best efforts of Laois County Council, there are major shortcomings that will hold back developments. The county is undergoing significant population expansion, but there are huge gaps in infrastructure. That is according to Irish Water's own documents, which I have scrutinised. There are water pressure issues and there is going to be a shortage of water supply in towns and villages like Portarlington, Mountrath, Stradbally, Rathdowney, Ballylinan, Durrow, Killenard, Borris-in-Ossory, Ballinakill, Castletown, Ballybrittas, Doonane and The Swan.”
“That is two years ago now. What is important here is that we increase the number of people in this. Surely within that 5% who are unemployed at the moment we can find some people who can be trained up to provide care in their local communities. We need to be able to keep this local. A few people driving across the county, from Ballylinan over to Camross or somewhere like that, will not work. We need to be able to keep it within local areas. It does not work otherwise for the home helps. I hope the Minister of State will look at that area.”
“-----but it is an area that may need to be looked at. I know what the Government is trying to do. It does not have to do away with the informal pieces that are there. I think Deputy Charles Ward is okay with my taking another minute or two. As regards the informal care and what the Government is trying to cater for there, I do not want to kill that off altogether, but it may need to be examined. I am not totally sure about that. It makes sense to have informal arrangements. Overall, I welcome the Bill. The Minister of State has heard what I said about the labour shortage. That is directly related to the quality of the jobs. The HSE is the cheapest way. That has been proven. If the Minister of State looks at the figures, he will see it. The last I saw, I think the private providers were €34 an hour or thereabouts.”
“I am all for reducing. A lot of these bodies are needed and I am not going to get into the populist argument about doing away with quangos. However, the question of who provides this needs to be examined. The regulation of providers and the minimum requirements and standards are really important. The Bill has provisions for the inspections of businesses and homes, including private homes. That needs to be very sensitively handled, as do the interviews with service users and home helps plus the families. That could get into a really tricky area. Without running away with ourselves, I think we can see that would need to be handled in a very careful way because you could get bogged down very easily in that, but, obviously, it is important that there are interviews with the service users.”
“There is a Bill coming and we need to make sure that this can be paid for and that the people who need it, regardless of whether they can pay for it, should not be prevented from getting home care. On the Bill itself, the overall provisions relate to registration, which is a positive move for the HSE, voluntary and private providers and a chief inspector of social services. In England the social services departments are very local. They are based in the local council areas, which is very interesting. They organise home helps and home care and they have huge powers. We do not have that here. The State will have to examiner whether the big HSE model is the best one for doing it. Does that need to be separated out? I do not know. I do not want to create another quango. I am not going to tell the Minister of State to do that.”
“Private companies providing care and they are doing a good job but less than 40% of care now being provided directly by the HSE and that needs to be looked at and that needs to change. Those directly employed by the HSE have better terms and conditions and we need to make sure that they are upheld. The quality of jobs in the sector is really important. It is important that all people have a proper living wage whether they are employed by the private sector or public sector. Travel times and travel costs in rural areas need to be looked after because a home care worker might be visiting seven or eight people in a day. It is also important that we have trained and vetted staff, because the safety and well-being of the service user has to be paramount. There is a need for clarity regarding how home care will be funded.”
“Very little can be done in half an hour. We all know that sometimes in our office we can get very little done in half an hour. It could take an hour or an hour and a half to deal with one issue. The same applies for a home help going to look after an elderly person. We need to be mindful of that. Another issue I want to address is the quality of the employment. There is a labour shortage in the sector, but we still have a lot of people who are not employed or under-employed. I find it very frustrating that some of them are not trained to provide the level of care. I know from my time on the Committee of Public Accounts that HSE employees are cheaper in the long run and in the short run than staff provided by private companies.”
“She did not have what she needed in her own home at that stage. There needs to be proper joined-up thinking between the hospitals and the home care services and that needs to be sorted out. We need to be sure that we have the home care package that the person needs when he or she goes home. I also want to address the issue of the stopwatch approach where 15 minutes is given for this and 15 minutes for that and the person has half an hour. We have home helps racing around in rural areas. Laois is a sizeable rural county and I have outlined some of the extensive rural areas in the county. If people are racing from one place to another, they are not able to provide adequate care. There is not time to carry out the tasks. There needs to be flexibility to allow the home care workers, as they are now being called, to provide that level of care.”
“They are the four legs of the stool and if one is taken away it will keel over. That is the best way of saying it. We also recognise the right of the people to have a level of care in their own home and to continue living there. All of these provisions are far less expensive than nursing homes or acute hospitals and the preferred option of the majority. I want to highlight that I deal with cases where people are being discharged from hospital, but the home care package is not in place. I have had to intervene and I recall one case where an elderly woman was being sent home on a Friday evening and there was absolutely nothing where she was going home to. The ambulance was on its way with her and was subsequently turned around and brought back. She would not have survived over the weekend without the appropriate care.”
“We need to enable people to continue to live independently and to do that there are a few basic requirements. Homes being adapted to meet people's needs is obviously important. I want to pay tribute to the housing section of Laois County Council. In my experience, any money that is granted is matched by the council in terms of alterations for stair lifts and extensions and making a house wheelchair accessible. That is really important. The provision of day care centres is important. It is important that people go somewhere one or two days a week to have a meal with other people and meet their contemporaries and have a social event, etc. The meals on wheels service is really important. That is the other part of it but the most important element is the home helps.”
“The emphasis has been on private nursing home care but, in general, people want to be at home. Nursing homes should be last resort and only if they really want that and if the level of care required requires them to be in a residence. Private nursing homes have been the number one Government option and they have mushroomed. We have seen the scandals in County Laois, in The Residence for example, not too far from my own house. We have seen the Drumneen situation and that is an unfolding story. We have seen difficulties in Kilminchy Lodge. Some private nursing homes have been good and Ballard Lodge was one but, unfortunately, it has been closed due to HIQA. This was one that had good reports and good satisfaction from residents and families was being reported.”