Home help is saving the tax payer millions - Mythen

An Enniscorthy Town Councillor has branded the €8 million of cuts to home help hours and up to €1.7 million in cuts to home care packages as economic madness. Cllr Johnny Mythen said the cuts made no economic sense as they would put huge pressure on the already struggling health service.

“Apart from the essential and obvious benefits that home helpers bring to the elderly, they also save the Government millions of euro a week, never mind a year. According to the H.S.E.s own figures it costs €800/€900 per overnight stay in a hospital or other Permanent accommodation.”

“The people who provide home help only get the minimum wage for a few hours a week. Hospitals all over the country are clogging up. They cannot discharge elderly patients because they have no means of looking after themselves without their home assistants.”

“Last week we had sixteen such cases in Wexford General Hospital alone. That is at a cost of €89600 per wk. This week in the Dail we had €8 million cuts in home help hours and €1.7 million in home care packages. These cuts are uneconomical, will cause untold hardship to our older generation, and will cause more people to join the unemployment list.”

"That's some savings alright"