Marie Sherlock
Dublin Central · Labour Party · Ireland
“That is why I want to see our local authorities moving from being just bystanders that license waste collection companies to actually controlling how the service is delivered.”
“That is why I want to pay tribute to all the people who are here today, including Stoneybatter Pride of Place, Phibsboro Village Tidy Towns and all the people working within their communities to keep them clean.”
“Panda’s parent company, Beauparc, sold for €1.3 billion in 2021 to an Australian investment firm. It is also co-owned by a US private equity firm. They are not in Ireland for the good of their health. They are here because they know they can make serious money. We know Greyhound’s parent company is registered on the Isle of Man.”
“The other important thing to say is that we did not hear any new ideas today, and I say that with the greatest respect to the Minister of State. We did not hear any ideas with regard to the profound challenges we have regarding our plateauing recycling rates and all the other issues that are there. That is disappointing.”
“I pay tribute to a lot of the work that many officials and workers in Dublin City Council do because, in some ways, their hands are tied behind their back. They recognise the issue with regard to landlord responsibility. I am very disappointed to hear the Minister of State's comments about landlord responsibility.”
“Dublin City Council was able to negotiate for the installation of ten-tonne compactors in the commercial areas, yet when it came to the residential areas, I understand the council tried to negotiate with the bin collectors on the roll-out of shared collection systems, but to no avail. That pretty much sums up our dysfunctional system.”
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“It was a Government that recognised there was a mutual benefit from affording workers decent and basic rights, in legislating for sick pay and in publishing a remote work strategy that recognised all that remote work opportunities could bring to locations across this country and bringing more people into our workplace, and in commissioning research on early pregnancy loss and its impact on women and on the workplace. Even the Taoiseach talked about introducing minimum pay for construction apprentices. All we have seen from the Government, since 2023, is a back-pedalling and retreat to a culture of distrust of workers and a failure to recognise that any gains to workers might make them more productive and better in their workplaces. This Government has disgracefully abandoned the expansion in the number of sick days to ten.”
“I am proud that the Labour Party is bringing forward this Bill and I thank my colleague Deputy Lawlor for all his work on this. The Minister's rejection of our Bill speaks volumes of what the Government is about. Having listened to the answer provided by the Minister of State and the Minister, we know clearly what the outcome of the review will be at the end of this year: nothing to see here, all is fine, move on. The Government, five years ago, had a bit of backbone in reluctantly recognising that advancing workers' rights was good for workers and good for their workplaces, families and communities.”
“There are increased costs for waste collection companies, but that is why it is absolutely critical that we have a conversation about how and who delivers waste collection and overall waste management within cities, towns, villages and across this country. We also have the added context of very poor performance with regard to recycling rates in certain areas. For many years, we have slapped ourselves on the back and said we are great as our recycling rates in some parts were above the EU average, but when we look at plastics recycling, Ireland is at 28% relative to a target of 50% in 2025. In municipal recycling and bring centres, Ireland is at only 41% relative to a target of 55%. We have to do better. The introduction of competition across the waste collection system in the early 2000s promised lower prices and a better service.”
“Two years ago, waste collection companies threatened this Government with price hikes because of the return scheme. They said that because the State was, in effect, taking away a very profitable aspect of their business, which is the collection of recyclable plastics, their bottom line was going to suffer and, ultimately, the householder was going to suffer because of an increased cost imposed by these companies. This is coming home to roost. We are now seeing that happen with householders. I acknowledge there are additional challenges, such as there no longer being opportunity to export beyond the EU borders.”
“Ultimately, if we are to see greater investment in shared collection points, more recycling, more composting and greater control on resources into waste, we need to change how this work is done and who does it. The context for this Bill is that yet again household this year are facing even greater bin collection costs. Panda, one of the largest providers in the State, has now raised its cost per bin to €14.75, an increase of 43% in just a two-year period. City Bin provides service to approximately 50,000 households across Dublin and Galway. We saw a 26% increase in just two years in its costs. Greyhound last saw an increase in costs, as we understand it, back in 2024, and no doubt we are going to be seeing changes to those costs over the coming weeks.”
“However, it is really important to recognise that it is not just tenants. There are also homeowners in this country who are responsible for illegal dumping. As a starting point, we need to make sure that there is landlord responsibility. We in the Labour Party believe that we have a dysfunctional system of waste collection, both here in Dublin and across many communities in Ireland. Bin companies are getting to drive by illegally dumped bags or burst bags strewn all over the ground. The onus is on residents to report it and the city council has to come and clean up the mess. Ultimately, we have underinvestment in composting and recycling facilities. We believe waste management is a vital public service. It should be about keeping our streets clean and not making a profit.”
“We want to recognise that in a cost-of-living crisis the cost of waste disposal is a significant cost for some households, such as those with a member with a disability, caring or on low income. We need to introduce a waiver across every local authority in the country for certain households. The third aspect of the Bill s crucial and it is the simplest part of the legislation I am proposing. We need to provide for landlord responsibility. The reality is that there are far too many tenanted accommodations across this country where there is no proper waste collection contract in place. The landlord does not take responsibility. The tenants, for a variety of reasons, whether culture, cost or overcrowding, do not take responsibility and we are left with the results on the street.”
“The Waste Management (Single Household Waste Collection Service) Bill is the culmination of many years of work across constituencies and communities, including my own constituency, that are dealing with scourge of illegal dumping, hazard and a sometimes unreliable waste collection and work with the trade union movement, in particular, the SIPTU-Fórsa campaign "More Power to You", which involves the fight for greater public services. This Bill seeks to do three things. It aims to overhaul the system of waste collection in this country. The Labour Party wants to move waste collection from a system of competition in the market to competition for the market.”
“I move That leave be granted to introduce Bill entitled an Act to improve the efficiency, competitiveness and sustainability of household waste collection services throughout the functional areas of local authorities; to provide for a scheme for the waiver of household waste collection charges on grounds of personal hardship; to enable local authorities to make provision by bye-laws relating to the duty of landlords in respect of the presentation of household waste by their tenants; for these purposes to amend the Waste Management Act 1996; and to provide for related matters. I am very proud to introduce this Bill today.”
“When I look at the notice of termination, I have to question whether all of the tenants have to be evicted for the renovations that are being proposed. I think there is a lot of gaming of the system happening at the moment. The appeals have been made to the Minister not to introduce this rent reset and to row back on the profound changes being introduced, which are already wreaking havoc on the system. In particular, we need to look closely at the mass eviction of fewer than ten units. What trends are happening in the RTB at this point? We need to move speedily to ensure there is a level playing field between the four and the ten. I know my colleague, Deputy Sheehan, will be bringing forward amendments on this.”
“We would have been critical in the past about data collection within the RTB, and we believe there needs to be an awful lot more reporting, but the critical issue here is that we now have different thresholds being set out in the rental legislation. The Tyrrelstown amendment refers to landlords with ten or more holdings wishing to sell. Of course, we now have this new provision for landlords with four. We need to level the playing field. We need hugely to tighten up on the Tyrrelstown amendment and we need to make sure we do not see what I am calling strategic evictions. One is a unit along the north quays, a building which was in NAMA and was in receivership for 13 years. The minute that debt was discharged the company has gone into liquidation and the sale is happening. The other is for renovation purposes.”
“This is driving the eye-watering rents of €2,500 that we are seeing in many parts of this city. This evening I want to raise specifically the two new classes of landlords, and by extension tenants, that will be created in this legislation. These are landlords with four or more units, and those with four or less units. What I am seeing at the moment is three examples of landlords strategically evicting tenants to avoid the so-called "Tyrrelstown amendment". They are evicting groups of tenants in fewer than ten units. This is to avail of the magic number of below ten. They are doing this over a staggered period of months. I do not know how widespread this practice is. I suppose the key issue is what the RTB is seeing in this.”
“Since the announcement was made last June of the proposed changes to take effect, the Minister, Deputy Browne, and the Government have unleashed havoc upon thousands of renters out there who are now facing notices to quit. In the third quarter of last year, 5,400 tenants received a notice to quit. That is up from about 3,000 in the previous year. For the people who are coming through my clinics in Dublin Central, it is really distressing because they have nowhere to go. We have spoken at length about the extortionate high rents in Dublin. There is a lot of talk about the market rate but we know the market rate is set by a small number of institutional investors who set the price for everyone else in the rental market, particularly in the main urban centres.”
“In one instance, it argued for weeks with a school principal who was seeking to ensure there would be running water from a tap in a toilet for a new AS classroom. The attitude from KSNPM towards these schools has been despicable and the response from the Department has been disgracefully slow. What will the Taoiseach do to ensure accountability for the school management building programme in the Department?”
“I raise concerns about the accountability and oversight of the school building programme, specifically with regard to one project management company contracted by the Department of education. KSNPM has been paid over €27 million by the State over the past six years. I am dealing with three schools that KSNPM is supposed to be looking after. In one school, it left behind a botched, half-done job. In another school, it left without ensuring the works were complete. In the third school, it left a school building site half done and empty since last June. Some examples include: unsafe exposure of electrical systems, water ingress from leaking roofs onto a brand new bathroom and broken asbestos tiles and classroom floors that children are walking around every day.”
“That is a joke. The reality, having regard to occupancy, is that conditions in many of our hospitals are very unsafe. Last year, 1,415 beds were lost because of delayed transfers of care. There is a lack of urgency from the Government. We need to ensure a more appropriate amount of money is in place for the health system.”
“I want to express my dismay over the pausing of the DART+ project. It is a retrograde step for communities in the Minister’s constituency, mine and the greater Dublin area. I want to talk about health infrastructure. The €9.25 billion allocation is simply not adequate when one considers the digitalisation programme, the National Maternity Hospital and the beds that need to be delivered. The Minister for Health, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, has spoken about the need to do something very real in Limerick, yet the money is not available. Both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael manifestos committed to delivering between 4,000 and 5,000 hospital beds over the lifetime of this Government, or 1,000 per year, yet we see that just 124 acute beds were delivered up to September last year. The service plan for this year commits to 134 net new beds.”
“I know many of the rest of us in the Chamber know of other desperately sad cases. My plea to the Minister of State this evening is in regard to the 24-7 care. It should be 24-7 care and not part of that, and it should be for the model 3 hospitals as well. Second, with regard to the assertive outreach and on-street mental health teams, it is crucially important that we see that rolled out across the country. Critically, it is to prevent situations such as the killing of Maud and indeed other people who are at risk, such as families, friends, neighbours and other supports who are trying to help people through mental health crises. Their lives are at stake if the health system does not step up to the mark.”
“He was given an appointment for the following week, despite it being known that he was not taking his medication for at least three months. Maud's family have been incredible in their fortitude in the midst of this incredible grief, to be able to speak out and talk about it being two lives that were destroyed three years ago and two families torn apart, and that it could have been avoided. Maud's family spoke so eloquently after the case concluded a number of weeks ago, where they talked about the systematic failings, both for Maud, who lost her life, and also for her former partner, who should have got some sort of attention on the day he went on to kill Maud. Our only hope is that after Maud's loss of life, her legacy should be that those interventions are there when people present.”
“That is simply unacceptable, particularly when we see the great work being done in Sligo-Leitrim, Cork and, with regard to Limerick, the community access support team within Limerick Garda station. There are models of care there that we need to see rolled out across the country. The last thing I want to say is that we all have not just stories but accounts from families of the devastating consequences of when there is not timely care. Maud Coffey was tragically killed by her partner in 2023. Her case speaks to the failings of emergency mental health care. Her partner had a mental health condition. He had presented looking for help. It was known that he had not been taking his medication for some months. He was suffering from a relapse of schizophrenia and he sought help from the team on the day he murdered Maud.”
“That means there are significant gaps across the country so we need to see it for the model 3 hospitals also. It is great if it is going to happen next year. The other key issue I want to raise is in regard to the assertive outreach or on-street mental health teams. Again, it is a really important provision within the community. When we submitted parliamentary questions on this, the replies indicate that it seems there are huge gaps across the country. There are no assertive outreach or on-street mental health teams in Waterford, Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, south Tipperary, south Dublin, Wicklow, north County Dublin and the north and west of the city.”
“It is not happening in every ED but there are certainly EDs where it is happening. We know the lack of 24-hour mental health emergency care is having an impact. I know there was an announcement this year and we welcome that announcement but it is only 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. and that, to me, is not 24-7. I know the number of presentations after 2 a.m. may be very few but the reality is that if somebody at three or four o'clock in the morning is presenting with suicidal thoughts or whatever, that service is not there. The reality is that back in 2016, the Government promised to roll out 24-7 pathways and a decade on, we still do not have them. They are going to be introduced in a very limited way to 2 a.m. but, of course, it is only for the level 4 hospitals.”
“Broken bones, heart attacks and strokes are well set up within the emergency department and yet for mental health, which can be as serious with the potential for fatal consequences, it is very much the Cinderella of our health service in general but in particular within our EDs. We know there are 51,000 presentations to acute mental health services every year and the Mental Health Commission report on acute mental health and hospital EDs painted a very stark picture of an inconsistent service with inadequate assessment spaces. That in many EDs, patients are first cleared for medical issues before being assessed psychiatrically, is simply unacceptable. That practice has to end. I know we have asked the Minister of State these questions before. I know there are efforts being made.”
“I thank Sinn Féin for this important and very timely motion on emergency mental health services. It is very timely because we are all acutely aware of the sheer level of demand that is there for mental health services and we know all too well of the lapses in timely care and the very devastating consequences when there are those lapses in care. Far too many are being failed by the lack of 24-7 care and the lack of appropriate space within our hospitals. It is unacceptable that assessments are taking place in inappropriate emergency department, ED, spaces that are not specifically designed for those with mental health issues.”
“My plea to the Taoiseach is to abandon the rent reset. There are other parts of this Bill that are very welcome, such as the rent register and other parts but the Taoiseach has to abandon the rent reset because we are throwing renters to the wolves. The last thing I want to say is that there are many of us in this House who are safe and secure in our own homes. We are not experiencing what renters are experiencing out there in terms of a precarious future with nowhere to live.”
“I have to plead with the Taoiseach to stop the rent reset that is going to be contained in the residential tenancies Bill. Since he made the announcement last year, he has unleashed havoc on thousands of renters out there who are facing a notice to quit this spring. This has been presented as short-term gain in terms of higher rents and evictions in order to get the longer-term gain of greater supply. It is utter nonsense. This is not some sort of diet. These are people's homes and they have nowhere to go. There are people coming through my clinics who are facing notices to quit. They have nowhere to go in the Dublin area, with rents of over €3,500. They cannot afford it and there is an irony here in regard to what the Government is introducing. The State is going to be on the hook for paying for these higher rents over the long term.”
“We need to give certainty because of the impact of lead on people. We know it causes huge damage in particular to infants, young people and older people. People need to be given this information. My clear call to the Minister is to make sure Uisce Éireann is properly resourced and financed to get on with the job of replacing lead connections in Dublin and give an assurance to everybody out there that they have little or no lead in their systems.”
“Another key issue is that in 2023 the Environmental Protection Agency flagged very serious issues with regard to the pace at which Irish Water is replacing individual lead pipe connections across Dublin. At that stage only 35% of connections were done. We need to see a much greater increase in this. This comes back to funding. Issues in my community in Phibsborough and in other communities have been detected because of academics testing in our communities and finding extraordinarily high levels of lead. We are not quite clear on why this is happening and whether it is the public system or the connections in people's households. We have asked Irish Water to undertake comprehensive testing of the area and it has come back to say it will do spot checks in particular areas, which is welcome, but it is not comprehensive.”
“The planning permission for the project in Clonshaugh has gone through and the judicial review has been withdrawn. We need to ensure there is no impediment to the development of this vital project for the north side of Dublin, particularly for the 6,000 houses in my constituency of Dublin Central that rely on the development of this wastewater project. The issue I want to raise today is with regard to lead in our pipes. It is a significant issue in Dublin and in other parts of the country. The reality is that we have a water directive from 2020, and arguably the Government is taking a very pedestrian pace with regard to its transposition. It will be 2036 when we will see the legal limit go from ten units per litre to five units per litre. I believe the Government needs to show leadership and move much more speedily on this.”
“The reality is that the Government has stood back and allowed its own Departments, public sector bodies and other big employers in this country to force people back into the office for three, four or five days, not trusting them and showing no leadership on how a different, healthier and more productive world of work could look. How can people be productive if they must spend four or five hours in the car every day commuting to Dublin, Cork, Galway or another main urban centre? The reality is that the Government has not taken the lead. This motion was very much directed at the Minister for Transport, but he is also the Minister for climate. When we see what is happening with emissions, we should realise the right to flexible and remote work could play an important role in reducing them.”
“He also referred to spreading more jobs across the country and not losing young workers to places abroad, stating remote and flexible work could play a profound part in achieving these aims. What has the Government done? Little or nothing. A Bill was introduced in 2023 that did the bare minimum. It ensured that the right to request flexible or remote work would be a perk for good behaviour, available only after six months in a job. The Government put all the power in employers’ hands. We see it in the cases taken to the Workplace Relations Commission, WRC.”
“Instead, we get from the Government a list of achievements and plans in place and no genuine recognition of what is happening and of the genuine demand among workers for a right to real and flexible work. I looked last night at a very good document produced by the Government back in 2021. It is five years old now. It was visionary and forward-thinking for its time. It was about making remote working work. When I read what then Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said about the post-pandemic world, I noted his view was that the world of work would change profoundly but that there was so much opportunity to bring more people into the workforce, including people with disabilities, and to ensure greater gender equality.”
“Congestion is a symbol of the failure of the Government to plan for the increase in population. On the one hand, we have a Government trumpeting an increase in jobs but, on the other, there has been a stark failure to plan for the associated housing and public transport needs. Most crucially this morning, the Minister of State has failed to recognise the solutions we are trying to bring to these issues, the ones that are staring him in the face with regard to affording more people the right to flexible and remote work in this country. I commend the Trojan work of my colleague Deputy Mark Wall and the rest of my colleagues in producing this motion, which refers to the problems, the responses that need to happen immediately and, crucially, the world of work and how we need to respond.”
“It is profoundly depressing and frankly outrageous to read the Government’s counter-motion this morning – a motion that cannot even bring itself to acknowledge the problems of congestion and chaos on our roads. It is a motion that does not even make a single reference to remote and flexible work. We have to ask how in touch the Government is when we see the dismissal of people’s very real needs and concerns. These are problems that the Government has brought on itself. The congestion on our roads is one of the many symbols of a decade of complete failure by the Government parties to ensure enough housing for its population. People must move farther and farther out of the main urban centres where they wish to hold their jobs because they cannot afford to buy in those centres. That is on the Government, including the Minister of State.”
“A much clearer message must be sent to the public that much swifter and more comprehensive action will be taken by HIQA if there are concerns. Right now, there is a belief among the public that we do not have an enforcement regime that will speedily respond when there are concerns and that too much time is taken. The reality is that abuses may continue to take place in the time it takes to make an application to the District Court. We must take more immediate action. We very much welcome this Bill. We want to see it move at a timely pace through this House and on to the Seanad. We need to see a substantial beefing up of the substance and content of the Bill for us to have the confidence that we will have a comprehensive and rigorous licensing, inspection and enforcement regime for home care support in this country.”
“We accept there has been an increase in the number of inspections and that is to be welcomed, but as I articulated earlier, there are concerns about how HIQA is going to enforce the licensing and how it is going to inspect and access people's homes. Ultimately, if licensing is not going to be a superficial act of these Houses of the Oireachtas, and if it is to mean something, we need to have a clear sense of what the enforcement framework is going to look like. In regard to nursing home registration, HIQA had to go to the District Court to seek the cancellation of a licence. I believe we need to do something stronger here. HIQA needs to be invested with greater powers to cancel the licence of a provider if wrongdoing is found.”
“There must be provision for the administrative burden in the funding provided to these organisations, through the tendering process. My last point relates to HIQA. In 2024, HIQA estimated that it would cost €1.1 million per annum to introduce licensing. In the first instance, we must get a commitment from the Minister of State, Deputy O'Donnell, that the comprehensive costs of licensing will be covered by the Department. I am sure it is much more than €1.1 million now. I have had serious concerns about the HIQA inspection regime, in particular with regard to nursing homes. We articulated that last year.”
“They were scapegoated and blamed for what took place in the nursing homes when, arguably, management and the owners got off scot-free. I have serious concerns about the exemptions. The other key concern is the classification or designation as a personal assistance service. There is a fine line between the two. I am worried that we would see organisations trying to classify themselves in that space and then being exempt from this legislation. At the end of the day we want to prevent abuse and exploitation of the person who is being cared for, and we also want to look after the worker who is providing that service. On the market and the cost of regulation, I spoke about the larger for-profit organisations that are effectively buying up voluntary and community-based organisations at the moment.”
“I apologise. We all understand if there is an informal arrangement in place for looking after a relative or a neighbour, where it is only one person, but it is a business if a person is looking after three or fewer clients. I do not want us to be in a place in a number of years time where we are talking about the disaster of not regulating these entities. We are talking about people's lives. We are talking about people in a very vulnerable situation. In some situations they may not have very strong family support or they may have no family support around them at all. Who are we trying to safeguard here? We are trying to safeguard the person being cared for in their home and indeed the worker as well. That is critically important. To be frank, some of the workers involved last year were thrown under a bus.”
“That is something that should be debated here on the floor of the Dáil and the Seanad, as opposed to confining it to ministerial regulation. The second key issue relates to the qualifications of home care providers. Very serious questions were raised during pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill on the desired minimum training and education, but the Bill does not provide any clarity on this. It would be worthwhile to hardwire this into the legislation. There is always a danger of there being a loophole with the exclusions. I understand why exclusions are put in place; we do not want to completely strangle or muffle a system. However, the reality is that if a provider has four clients or fewer, they should be regulated as well.”
“I refer to people who would like to work but cannot do so because of structural circumstances in their lives, whether it is a lack of childcare, a lack of transport or because they are caring for an elderly parent or relative. There are people who would like to work and we must figure out a way to bring such people in particular into a sector like this. For example, they could work part time or full time. We need to tap in to the untapped resource that exists. I am concerned about how much in this Bill we are not hard-wiring into primary legislation but instead delegating to ministerial regulation. I refer in particular to the consent piece and the access piece into people's homes. It is important to work out the detail on that.”
“That is a huge amount of unmet need. The cost of keeping people at home is relatively low compared with the alternative, which is that if they do not get support and care, they end up in a nursing home or they are readmitted to hospital. We must do much more to ensure we attract people into these roles, and that comes down to pay and conditions. I spoke about the strike that is happening at the moment, and the ballot for industrial dispute. It also comes down to the hours that are worked and making sure that people get proper transport and other allowances. It is also about reaching out to the many people, in particular women, who are outside of the labour force. We often talk about the unemployment rate in Ireland being about 4% or 5%, but the potential labour supply in this country is of the order of 16% to 18%.”
“The key question, which is outside this Bill but is very much for the Minister of State in terms of deciding the budget, is whether sufficient funding will be allowed for in the tendering process for this additional administrative requirement? If there is, the Government can ensure the survival and, indeed, the thriving of the many home care support providers at the moment. If there is not, we know the direction of travel and we are going to see a much smaller number of very big entities. We also know that the 29,000 people who are providing home care support at the moment are not enough. There are massive shortages in certain parts of this country, including Cork, Kerry and parts of Limerick. Some 900 people are waiting for home care support in Cork and Kerry alone. Some 4,945 people are on a waiting list, as of June of last year.”
“I know there are some changes now within HIQA with regard to having to declare the ultimate beneficiary. That is important but it is not enough because we have to be mindful of who is ultimately going to be controlling the market or the sector for home care. Another key thing is the financial support to be made available to HIQA, not just to administer the licensing but also in terms of the inspections regime. There are also the exemptions within this Bill, particularly with regard to personal assistance and those other carve-outs which are very concerning. We know there are about 200 home care support providers in Ireland with up to 29,000 staff. I do not want to see in five years that 200 figure go down to 50 or below, but it could because of the administrative requirements envisaged within this Bill.”
“That is now slowly changing, and we are seeing corporate entities come into the market and it is not so different from the nursing home sector in terms of their ability to swallow up smaller operations. In terms of some of the requirements set down in this Bill, there is a very real question for the Government regarding what kind of model of home care support it wants. Does the Government want it to be driven and delivered by large corporate entities, or does it still want to accommodate that community-based model? That is a question I would like the Minister of State to answer today because failings in how the Government has responded over many years with regard to the nursing home sector paved the way for the mess that happened last year.”
“As we all know, there is a statutory right to access public hospitals in this country, but there is nothing regarding care within our homes. That has to be a critical part of ensuring people get the care, dignity and service they are entitled to and deserve within their home in future years if the Government is serious about moving care out of our acute hospital system and into the community. I also have a concern about what I see as the growing marketisation of the home care sector. For a long period of time it was very much based on the co-operative model. It was based on voluntary providers and community-based providers providing home care assistance within communities.”
“The reality we have known for some time is that when we try to get services on the cheap, we end up in very serious and dangerous territory in healthcare. We need to make sure that these workers who are going in and out of people's homes day in, day out are afforded the dignity and respect of proper pay. SIPTU has also balloted for industrial action with a 95% vote across counties Donegal, Clare, Cork, Kerry and other counties because of long-standing failures to meet proper working conditions in the sector in those particular organisations. Regarding the Bill itself, today we are talking about a statutory regulatory framework for providers. A critical part of the jigsaw is the statutory right to be cared for within one's home.”
“I am particularly mindful of the timeliness of this now, given that the approximately 28 million home care hours provided across the State in 2022 will almost double in about 18 years by 2040. The reliance on home care support packages across the State with an ageing population means getting this legislation right is going to be critical. Before I talk about my concerns about the Bill and indeed about what is not in it, I am conscious that 100 staff in Coolock from Northside Home Care Services are currently on strike because of their failure to be recognised within the section 39, section 56 and section 10 pay deal that was agreed 18 months ago. It is wrong that they have been excluded. We should decide whether they are part of our health service.”
“I very much welcome this Bill. It is long overdue, as we badly need to have a statutory regulatory framework for home care support in this country. There is a glaring need to have minimum standards and a licensing regime for providers. Others have referenced the scandal we saw within the nursing home sector last year and in many previous years. We do not really have any idea of the quality and standard of the much-needed care that is taking place within peoples' homes. This Bill will, for the first time, allow for licensing inspection and enforcement of minimum standards. It is important to say that how the ministerial regulations will be set will be critical to the success or otherwise of this legislation.”
“The Government is talking about supporting Dublin city, but is it really strangling the recommendations of the task force and the miserly implementation plan devised by the interdepartmental working group, which is only seven months old? We are not seeing any action on the ground by the Government.”