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Home Care Workers Forced to Quit Over Government Failure to Grant Work Permits

 

• Home Instead employees from outside Europe forced to resign due to inability to secure visa, adding to carer shortages
• Home care remains on ineligible skills list for employment despite recommendations that it be removed.
• Over 6,000 people, already approved for home care by the HSE, remain on waiting lists, caused by shortage of available carers
• 21% of employees who left at one Dublin Home Instead Office forced to resign because of inability to secure work permit.
• Calls for Government to immediately remove Home Care Sector from the ineligible skills list in order to help alleviate unprecedented demand for home care

Home Instead, Ireland’s largest private home care provider, has said that many of their employees from outside of Europe are being forced out of the home care sector because they are unable to secure a visa.

Home care remains on the ineligible skills list for employment permits despite Minister of State for Older People Mary Butler’s admission that “No issue is more urgent than the nationwide shortage of care workers.” The government’s own recommendation1 is now that it be removed so that the sector can attract and retain more workers from outside the European Economic Area – but not until additional regulations have been introduced for the sector.

There are currently over 6,000 people on waiting lists who have already received HSE approval for homecare, which cannot be provided due to the nationwide shortage of carers in the sector. Many of these patients remain in hospital or have been moved to nursing homes while they await carers. Nursing home care is not on the ineligible skills list, meaning that nursing homes can hire non-EEA care workers.

Home Instead say the decision by Government to delay removing home care from the ineligible skills list simply pushes down the road an important mechanism required to increase home care capacity in Ireland.

Director of Corporate Operations at Home Instead, Michael Wright, says this issue significantly impacts on their ability to deliver home care to all who need it.

“The Programme for Government calls for a ‘home first’ approach to providing care and remaining in their own homes for as long as possible is what the vast majority people want.

“Decisions like this fly in the face of that objective as it incentivises qualified, trained and talented carers to leave the home care sector for other care roles. If the system is effectively forcing carers out of home care and into nursing home or residential care, is it not obvious that it forces care recipients down the same path?”

Carers forced to leave

Many people employed as home carers originally had permission to work in Ireland because they were studying here, reside with an Irish spouse, or because they are seeking international protection. However, when staff reapply for permission to work in Ireland, this permission is not always granted.

At one Home Instead Dublin office, 21% of workers were forced to leave after their visa expired., Many of those carers went on to secure employment in nursing homes which do have the right to sponsor care workers.

Larissa Ferreira left Home Instead Leopardstown and secured work in a nursing home which could give her a route to residency:

“I loved working as a Home Instead CAREGiver and spending time with my clients. I would love to come back and work with Home Instead, but I cannot get a permit and the nursing home can give me one”.

Current permissions to work in Ireland can also limit the number of hours someone can work. Larissa Moreno Portillo, formerly of Home Instead Ballsbridge says:

“Of course I would love to work full time. It would change my life massively.

“I have missed out on so much due to not being able to afford activities and that. I have thought about leaving Ireland to move to Germany as I could work more hours there and have a more affordable lifestyle. I love my job so I would love to work more hours.

Employment Visas

Michael Wright, says this issue significantly impacts on their ability to deliver home care to all who need it as they employ care professionals from over 50 different nationalities…

“Every Home Instead office in Ireland, from Cork to Donegal to Dublin employs people who were born abroad. Home Instead’s ability to hire people with the right talent and skills, our training and development programmes and our quality assurance processes allows Home Instead to find and nurture people from all over the globe to provide a high standard of care. Home Instead does not need to change this process to meet draft home care regulations published by the Department of Health in June this year.”
“It is unclear why the granting of permits to hire non-EEA workers to home care depends on commencement of home care regulation that requires no clear changes in recruitment processes and training standards.”

Home Instead says this can be resolved easily by introducing the employment regulations necessary to remove home care from the ineligible skills list and is urging the Government, in particular Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Damien English to do this as a matter of urgency.

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