Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank both Senators for the way they have addressed this matter. We are all very conscious that this is home from home for many people and that respite is important. There is no bigger advocate in these Houses than me for community nursing units and HSE run community hospitals, whether they have 40 beds or 80 beds. I met yesterday with Dr. Emer Ahern who is the clinical lead for older people for the whole of the country. We had a long meeting in which we discussed respite and the resumption of respite beds, which has not occurred in some areas since Covid. We talked about transitional care funding and the importance of keeping older people out of acute hospitals and having throughput to the community. As Senator O'Reilly said, Sláintecare is about having the right care in the right place as close to home as possible. It is important that these respite beds are opened without delay.

To respond to Senator O'Reilly's question, there are two issues here. There is a dedicated focus on reopening these beds through agency staff but that is not ideal. There are no agency staff available this week, although they were available last week. That is the short-term solution. The long-term solution is to sort out whether these posts are funded and I hope to be able to provide some clarity on that later in the day.