Nearly 900 people are waiting for home help in Cork

Nearly 900 people in Cork are on a waiting list for home support, which is the longest home help waiting list in Ireland.

This is a result of retirements outstripping recruitment in the sector, because in 2024, more than 160 home support staff in Cork and Kerry resigned or retired but there were only a little more than 100 new staff recruited.

A Cork advocate for the elderly says people are being forced into nursing homes against their wishes due to these ongoing shortages.

New data shows that 890 clients in Cork city and county are awaiting home support. This comprises 543 people awaiting a new service and 347 existing clients waiting for additional hours.

The shortage came about because, in 2024, a total of 161 home support staff in Cork and Kerry resigned or retired. However, just 105 new staff were recruited during this time.

A new report from Home Care and Community Ireland shows that Cork has the highest amount of people waiting for home support in Ireland, more than double the next highest county — Galway — where 362 people were waiting.

The report also notes that the highest local waiting list in Ireland is in the South Lee area of Cork City, accounting for about 60% of Cork’s waiting list.

Cork advocate for the elderly Paddy O’Brien told The Echo that the figures were “absolutely deplorable”.

“Home support provide a wonderful service, and only for them you’d have far more people in nursing homes, including those banished out to the country where they’ve never been before, tearing husbands and wives apart,” 

he said.

“Often the home support is the only person an elderly person will talk to all day. People waiting for this service shows a lack of care and compassion, and it’s driving people into nursing homes,” he said, adding that many are also spending a long time in hospital after being discharged as they can’t return home without support.

Mr O’Brien said recently that many older people are unable to visit their partners due to their being transferred to a nursing home as many as 30 miles from the city, with one woman saying she hasn’t seen her husband in seven months as she is unable to travel that far.

“These are elderly people who can no longer care for themselves, cook for themselves. It seems like nobody cares about the elderly – the services are deplorable, they have a pension they can’t live on, their electricity bills are enormous and some of them are in debt just from buying food.

“We don’t have a senior minister for elderly people, and the junior minister doesn’t sit around the table when important decisions are made, so the elderly have no voice,” he said.

A HSE spokesperson said: “There are challenges in the sector, particularly on the workforce side. Progress has been made; we are delivering more support hours than ever and we currently have sufficient funding for home support hours but do not have the carers to deliver it.

The spokesperson added that the most recent recruitment campaign identified 64 potential candidates for Cork and Kerry positions, with the recruitment clearance process ongoing.

The waiting list figures were provided to Fine Gael TD for Cork North West, Deputy John Paul O’Shea, who told The Echo: “These numbers are shocking and unacceptable. It is outrageous that despite having the funding in place, the HSE is unable to deliver care because of workforce shortages.”