Cork and Kerry record lowest number of home support hours for people with disabilities

Almost five times as many hours of personal assistance are being provided to disabled people in a HSE Dublin region, as in Cork and Kerry.

The south-west region saw the lowest amount of both personal assistance and home support hours provided to people with disabilities of any of the HSE’s six health regions last year and in the first three months of this year.

This was despite it not having the lowest amount of people with disabilities in receipt of these services.

Personal assistance and home support are forms of assisted- living support provided to people with disabilities to support them to maximise their capacity to live full and independent lives.

Figures supplied by the HSE show that in 2025, 177,179 personal assistance hours were delivered to 593 people in HSE South West, which covers Cork and Kerry, while in HSE Dublin and North East, 270,115 hours were delivered to 185 people.

The data equates to approximately 299 personal assistance hours per reported recipient in Cork and Kerry and 1,460 hours per reported recipient in Dublin and the North East.

At the end of the first quarter of 2026, 44,153 personal assistance hours had been delivered to 602 recipients in Cork and Kerry, compared with 70,714 hours to 196 recipients in Dublin and the North East.

In terms of home support provision, the gap is narrower, but still present in the data, which was provided to Social Democrat TD Liam Quaide.

Mr Quaide said: “The scale of the difference in personal assistance provision between Cork/Kerry and Dublin and the North East is extraordinary.

“Geography should not determine access to that support without a clear explanation based on need.” 

He asked how many personal assistance and disability home support hours had not been delivered because of staffing shortages or cancelled visits, and was told: “Details of hours not delivered are not captured.”

Mr Quaide said: “It is also extremely concerning that the HSE does not capture how many personal assistance or home support hours are lost because of staffing shortages or cancelled visits.

“If people are being allocated essential supports that then fail to materialise, we need to know how often that is happening, where it is happening and why.”