Home-help hours in Cavan-Monaghan almost half of 2010's

Cavan and Monaghan are suffering significant under provision of home-help hours, which have been cut by 43% since 2010.
The figures were obtained by Cavan’s Brendan Smith TD, who revealed that the hours have fallen from 548,094 to 313,000, which, “incredibly, means the fall in Cavan and Monaghan since 2010 accounts for almost a fifth of the nationwide reduction in home-help hours”.
“The cuts to home-help for older people are another example of the government’s failure to keep the promises it made in order to get itself elected. Fine Gael-Labour committed to increasing home help supports year on year. What has happened is the complete opposite.
“To add insult to injury, the figures show that the HSE won’t even meet its 2015 target of providing 335,000 home-help hours. The projection now is that 313,000 will be delivered, 22,000 fewer than originally planned,” he said.
“It’s a well-known fact that Ireland has an ageing population with more people needing access to home care packages. The scheme is of vital importance.
“This under-performance is worrying and the government must ensure that this trend does not continue. It is unacceptable that allocated hours are not being used despite the increase in older people and people with disabilities who need assistance at home.
“The respite care grant was cut, care units have been forced to turn away patients due to staff shortages and payments such as the fuel allowance have been reduced.
“We all know someone in our local community that could do with additional assistance.
“Given the range of cuts targeting people with disabilities and their carers it is imperative that the full provision of home-help hours for Cavan and Monaghan is used in full and that much-needed additional hours are provided,” he said.