Elderly abandoned as HSE fails to staff thousands of care hours

More than 1,200 hours of promised HSE home care were left vacant in Sligo and Leitrim last year—leaving older people without vital daily support and families at breaking point.

Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny has condemned the situation as “shocking and deeply worrying,” saying it reflects a complete failure of the system to deliver even the most basic care to vulnerable members of society.

“These are elderly people—some living alone, some unable to wash or cook for themselves—going without care that was already approved,” Deputy Kenny said. “The hours are there on paper, but no one is showing up.”

The number of vacant care hours more than doubled from 545 in January to 1,214 by year’s end, according to figures released to Deputy Kenny through a parliamentary question. The vast majority of these are in services for older persons. In December alone, over 800 hours were left uncovered.

“This is not just a statistic,” Kenny said. “This is someone’s mother waiting by the window, someone’s father missing meals, someone lying in bed because no one came to help them up.”

Kenny said the core issue is a severe staffing shortage—one the HSE has failed to properly address. “I know people who interviewed for carer roles and never heard back for three months. By then, they’d taken other jobs. The HSE says it’s hiring, but it’s not following through.”

He’s now written to HSE CEO Bernard Gloster demanding an urgent plan to fill the gaps. “Care that’s promised and not delivered isn’t just a system failure—it’s a betrayal.”

Disability services are suffering too, with Leitrim recording nearly 300 hours of vacant disability care in December alone.

“Families are stretched to their limits,” Kenny added. “We’re talking about people doing back-breaking care work for their loved ones, alone, while approved help sits in limbo. The system is failing the most vulnerable, and it has to stop.”

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