Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

It is obviously welcome that the Minister, Deputy Reilly, has come before the Dáil to try to explain this. I am pleased that the immediate crisis, at least, is over. Can the Minister assure us that the 500 people in acute hospital beds whose applications have been approved will get the places they need and deserve as a matter of urgency? Can he ensure the 4,500 outstanding applications will be processed quickly? Will the needs of those people be met as a matter of urgency?

This issue raises serious questions about the provision of long-stay residential care to the elderly in nursing homes. I am critical of the Minister in the sense that it is unacceptable, frankly, that one of the consequences of the manner in which this crisis has been dealt with is that long-stay inpatient charges will have to be increased. If I understand it correctly, an extra charge will be imposed on patients. It is not clear how much this unacceptable increase will be. The Minister has said it will have to raise €12 million. We need clarity on where the rest of the money to make up the shortfall will come from. Will it affect other areas of service? I refer specifically to the provision of the physiotherapy and occupational therapy services needed by people in nursing homes.

I will conclude by referring to the review of the whole thing. Many of the Minister's statements have emphasised the fact that the private nursing home sector is cheaper than the public nursing home sector. However, this report informs us that part of the problem is that prices in the public sector are increasing. When one considers the horror of the Rostrevor House nursing home in Rathgar and cases like Leas Cross, perhaps one will understand why the private sector is sometimes cheaper. It seems that some nursing homes in the private sector are not providing the level of care they should to the elderly. The Minister should review the idea that the private sector offers a simple answer to this problem. The private sector is cheaper in many cases because it often does not provide the same level of care. In addition, the public sector has to take patients with higher levels of dependency. We need proper and fair funding of proper nursing home care of the elderly.

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