Cork North Central TD Ken O’Flynn has said the HSE has confirmed there is no requirement on home support providers to pay carers anything for the use of their own cars.
In replies to parliamentary questions, the HSE stated that “payment in respect of mileage rates is a matter for each external provider.” No minimum rate per kilometre is set under the Home Support Authorisation Scheme.
Asked whether any review of mileage rates had been carried out since 2023, the HSE did not say that any review had taken place.
The HSE also confirmed that providers are paid a single national rate of €32.73 an hour, unchanged since September 2025, and that any increase for 2027 depends on funding from the Department of Health.
Deputy O’Flynn said: “Home carers are on the road every day, in their own cars and paying for their own fuel, so that older people can stay in their own homes.”
“The State pays providers €32.73 an hour,” Deputy Flynn said, “and it doesn’t require a single cent to be paid back for mileage. That isn’t good enough.”
“The HSE has told me it has carried out 525 compliance audits of these providers. If the State can audit them, it can check what carers are actually being paid. These are the people holding up our home care system, and they shouldn’t be subsidising it out of their own pockets.
“I’ll be pressing the Minister to make fair mileage a condition of the scheme from January 2027,” he said.
Figures released last month in answer to a parliamentary question showed that frontline carers can get less than half the hourly pay of the agencies that employ them.