Sinn Féin’s by-election candidate Johnny Mythen, called the government out on the increase in the number of people on the home help waiting list in Wexford. He said it was “a national disgrace” and the Government is “dishonest” as the 746 home-help waiting list in County Wexford passes 10% of the State total.

Johnny Mythen said; “The government have had a freeze on home help hours nearly all year and it has meant that the waiting list for home help has exploded, especially in County Wexford where there are 746 people on the waiting list.

“As bad enough as that is for their families, to put that in another perspective: County Wexford represents over 10% of the entire waiting list in the state – which is 7,225. Outside the Capital City, there is no other county in the state with more people waiting; and even south Dublin has less waiting than us.

“Fine Gael tried to pull a fast one in Budget 2020 by making out the provision of one-million hours of home help would clear the whole waiting list.

“Sinn Féin called them out on this trickery at the time and we now have proof from the HSE that the additional hours will cover barely half the waiting list and will meant that thousands of people state-wide still won’t get home help.

“The numbers provided to me by the HSE show that some 2.5 million home help hours would be needed to clear the waiting list in 2020 and give everyone 6.5 hours of care per week, at a cost of €59million for the year.

“Instead of delivering for those who need home care in County Wexford, we had a cynical attempt by both government TDs – and their loyal helpers propping them up – to try and trick the public.

“This situation is a disgrace – we have people entitled to home help not getting their hours, we have a postcode lottery for who can and cannot get care, and the government wasting huge sums of money on private home help providers instead of having a working public home help system.

“It would have only taken €59m to ensure everyone on the home help waiting list, including the 746 people and families in County Wexford, got the home help they need, but Fine Gael couldn’t give a toss about the people on that waiting list – their actions for the last eight years show that,” he concluded.