Care institutions and local authorities should improve the way they work with family carers and volunteers, junior healthcare minister Martin van Rijn has told MPs.

Van Rijn has set aside €4m to encourage institutions to work more closely with family carers and help people stay in their own homes as long as possible.

Volunteers and family members are essential to this new policy, Van Rijn told MPs in a briefing.

‘Family carers, volunteers and professionals complement each other,’ he said. ‘Care can only be adapted to the person if we look to the individual’s situation. Family carers and voluneers are an essential part of this and should therefore be involved.’

Care services for the elderly and handicapped are being decentralised from January 1, meaning local authorities rather than central government will determine the type of care needed and its funding.