Students and unemployed may be trained to work as homecare workers

Despite an increased budget, difficulty in recruiting staff means 5,000 people are still on the waiting list for visits

Mary Butler, Minister of State for Older People: ‘We’re trying to think outside the box and encourage as many people as we can to come into this sector’. Picture: Fergal Phillips

The government is working on a plan to train students and unemployed people as home carers in response to the staffing crisis in the sector.

The state has an increased budget of €600 million a year to pay for home carers to visit the homes of around 50,000 people, with an extra five million hours of care available.

But there are still 5,000 people on the waiting list because both the HSE and private homecare ...