The legacy of Covid-19 for epistemic struggles over home care in Ireland: tensions, contradictions, and dilemmas in resisting increased privatisation.

In this submission I assess the implications of the pandemic for contemporary contests to shape debates and policy on home care in Ireland. I outline the current socio-political context on care in Ireland, the homecare system and the networks and alliances and conflicts that characterise the sector. My approach is one that highlights the ideational work of trade union actors, non-profit and for-profit actors building on the pandemic initiated ‘discursive explosion of care’ (Chatzidakis and Littler 2022,269) that included seeking access to pandemic recognition payments and now centre on solving the ongoing ‘crisis in home care’. The method is based on thematic analysis of public commentary, industry publications and parliamentary committee testimony. Drawing on social movements concepts I detail patterns of frame alignment, co-optation or contest that occur as actors within home care provision in Ireland work to shape the direction of home care policy. My analysis reveals hierarchies and contests around what good care should be, efforts to maintain care as a private or profitable matter, albeit resourced by public funds as well arguments for care as a public good. These rely in part on epistemic strategies that seed societal and political anxieties around the demographic crisis of ageing population and the rights of families to ‘care’ that maintain the gendered and racialised profile of care work. Alternative framing is evident in the discourse of trade unions and small migrant led non-profit home care collectives, yet there is also evidence that leftist and feminist critique of privatised care is co-opted by market actors complicating campaigns for state investment in public care. I emphasise actors who seek public rather than a privatised approach to home care contributing to reflections on how Covid-19 triggered adaptation for some trade unions ( Hunt and Connolly 2023) and ideational resources for other non-profit social interests in home care. One aim is to highlight the creative ability but also the challenges that face actors aiming to contest the privatisation of home care within a broader market led care imaginary.