The Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025, which was published today, falls short of addressing the issues facing the home care sector, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice said:<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome today\u2019s announcement on home care regulation after years of false starts. Regulation of home care has been a Programme for Government commitment since 2020, yet a regulatory framework has still not been legislated for.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite today\u2019s progress, it is disappointing that the proposed regulation appears to exclude children\u2019s services – in February, I raised the need for children to be included with the Minister for Health in the D\u00e1il, but that call has been ignored.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ombudsman for Children, HIQA and a previous Oireachtas Health Committee have all recommended including paediatric home care in the new regulations – according to the Ombudsman, over 650 children with complex needs are in receipt of these vital services in their home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t paediatric home care be subjected to the same level of scrutiny as older person\u2019s home care?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of a statutory right to home care, it is deeply frustrating that we are still waiting for that scheme \u2013 eight years after the then-Minister for Health, Simon Harris, committed to introducing it. Since then, every target for the introduction of a statutory right to home care has been missed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now hear very little from this government about the statutory scheme \u2013 the focus seems only to be on regulation. This is an approach that lacks ambition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile regulation is an important step on the road to a statutory scheme, it\u2019s a far cry from delivering the radically different model of care that is so desperately needed \u2013 and was promised after Covid.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recruitment and retention of home care staff is also still a major issue, yet implementation of the remaining recommendations from the 2022 Strategic Workforce Advisory Group on Home Carers and Nursing Home Healthcare Assistants has effectively been put on ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cA progress report hasn\u2019t been published since July 2024, at which point recommendations one, three and twelve (all related to recruitment) still hadn\u2019t been implemented.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless homecare becomes a viable career, with workers benefitting from good pay, reasonable terms and conditions and opportunities for career development, the sector will not be able to deliver the change needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, delivering a statutory right to home care must be a priority to ensure that older people are supported to remain in their homes, to reduce dependency on family and friends and, crucially, to end the State\u2019s overreliance on institutional care.\u201d<\/p>\n
December 9th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Health (Amendment) (Home Support Providers) Bill 2025, which was published today, falls short of addressing the issues facing the home care sector, according to Social Democrats TD P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice said: \u201cI welcome today\u2019s announcement on home care regulation after years of false starts. Regulation of home care has been a Programme for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n