Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

He should be given the benefit of the doubt until he proves to be unworthy of it. I consulted a voluntary group that has done some research in this area and was very interested in what it had to say. I am aware that the programme for Government promised a review of the fair deal system. According to the group I consulted, there is a need to establish absolute legal clarity on the right to nursing home care of a highly vulnerable group of citizens. Equally, there is a need to consider different models for the financing of long-term care, including nursing home care. It is critical that the costs and benefits of those models be assessed. As we attempt to quantify current and future long-term care needs and costs, the key issue is not to identify the size of the older population, but to identify current and future disability and dependency levels within that population. A clear agreed understanding of what constitutes long-term care should be developed. I agree there is a need to establish absolute legal clarity on the right to nursing home care. The Ombudsman has been involved in a dispute in that regard. The 2009 nursing home support scheme is now deemed to supersede the provisions of the Health Act 1970, which obliged the State to provide for nursing home care.

I have read that 95% of elderly people are cared for at home rather than in nursing homes. I assume that figure is correct. If so, it is brilliant. There is a fear that the 5% figure will increase in the years to come. The role of the extended family is probably decreasing, rather than increasing. The notion that grandparents should live with their children and grandchildren is not as popular as it was. It is probable that fewer people are available to look after our older people. I have been struck by the difference between the attitude to older people in Ireland and Italy, a country with which I am pretty familiar. I have watched older people in places like Turin. I am pretty familiar with a small village of 3,000 people in Piemonte. I have seen older people gathering together in such places. There seems to be more respect for older people in Italy. Rather than being seen as surplus to requirements, they are valued as people who are worthy of respect, having been there and done that. We have a lot to learn from other cultures. I cannot help feeling this country has probably been too Americanised in the past 15 or 20 years. Older people are not getting the respect they are due. Any Government should be well judged on how it looks after the most vulnerable people in society. This Government should be judged in those terms. I am not accusing it of anything, as it is only getting started. It is important that the Government treats older people with more respect than we have seen over the past 20 years.

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