Home Help workers to attend Dáil debate

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Monday October 15, 2012 18:09 by Paul Gavan - SIPTU

500,000 hours of cuts made in 2012

A number of Home Help workers will be making visits of a different kind this week as they attend a Dáil Debate on Home Help Services. Home Help and Home Care activists who are part of SIPTU’s new “Time to Care” campaign will be attending the two-evening debate on a motion calling on the Government to immediately reverse recent cutbacks in funding for the service.

Vital Home Help services to the elderly and disabled have already suffered 500,000 hours of cuts in 2012, and in September the Health Service Executive (HSE) announced plans to slash a further 600,000 hours before the end of this year. Home Helps deliver direct personal care such as preparing meals and feeding their clients, providing assistance with showering, toileting and dressing along with vital domestic duties required to ensure that those who avail of the service are safe and secure in the comfort of their own homes. Many of the people receiving these services have no other family to care for them.

The motion which is proposed by Sinn Fein, will be discussed on the evenings of Tuesday (16th October) and Wednesday (17th October), and calls on the Government to immediately reverse the cuts to home help hours and home care packages and to return funding to pre-budget 2012 levels.

For Tina Early, a Home Help worker and SIPTU activist from East Wall in Dublin, it will be her first visit to Dáil Eireann.

“I never thought I would have to visit the Dáil to demand protection for the services we provide but we simply can’t continue with the cutbacks that are being imposed on our clients,” she said. “We love our work but they’re making it so difficult for us now. I’m only given half an hour with some of our clients and it’s just not enough time. We are calling on all of our public representatives to support this motion and we will be attending the Dáil to see at first-hand how the Government responds to the crisis in funding for our services”

SIPTU’s Time to Care Campaign has seen thousands of Home Help workers organise in opposition to further reductions to the Home Help service.

SIPTU Organiser Miriam Hamilton said:“We are calling on the HSE and the Minister for Health to protect both workers and clients who need this service from further cuts. We call on them to cease the practice of cutting home help hours due to financial considerations only and to recognise that the needs of the elderly and disabled people who require this service must come first.”