Sinn Féin Health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly has said Fine Gael is failing older and vulnerable people, as updated figures released to her show that nearly 8,000 people are waiting for home help.
 
The Sinn Féin GE Candidate for Dublin Fingal said:
 
“Home care delivered in the home is the preferred form of care for most older people and their families, and some vulnerable younger and their families people rely on home help to get by day-to-day.
 
“The vast majority of older people want to live independently in their home for as long as possible.
 
“Unfortunately, due to the freeze of home help by Fine Gael with the support of Fianna Fáil, the numbers waiting for home help have skyrocketed and are nearly at 8,000.
 
“At the start of 2016 when this sham of confidence and supply began there were 1,678 people on the home help waiting list, but the actions of these two parties have seen that increase nearly fourfold.
 
“The situation is ridiculous – we have people entitled to home help not getting their hours, we have a postcode lottery for who can and cannot get care, and we have the government wasting huge sums of money on private home help providers instead of having a working public home help system.
 
“My own constituency of Fingal has the third highest waiting lists in the State, with 839 people waiting. Dublin North West and Wexford also have over 800 waiting with the list only going upwards and getting worse.
 
“Immediate action is required to ensure that people across the State can access appropriate care and stay in their home or return home.
 
“This will have huge benefits for those who receive home help and home care, their families and friends, and for the health service as a whole as it will free up beds which are occupied by those who want to, and are ready to, return home.”