Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The review of the fair deal scheme is almost complete. The one thing it will tell us is that the fair deal scheme is unsustainable in its present form. The idea that a person with means would pay in the range of €250 to €290 per week for a service that is costing anything up to €1,200 to provide is unsustainable. I take on board the point made by Deputy Catherine Byrne. In my view people who never owned their own home, always rented a house from the local authority, and have no other income other than the State pension should be protected in terms of access to the fair deal scheme, but there will have to be changes. It is an incredible scheme. It is called a fair deal for a very good reason, because everyone has access to it. We have to take a serious look at the additional funding that will be needed. Some of the funding will have to come from the public purse but equally we have to look at other sources of income. I am not going to pre-empt what is in the review but if it does not deal with the funding element of it, it will have done a very poor job. There are other elements and I hope it will allow people in the community access to fair deal while still being able to remain in their own home. We have to step back and take a serious look at the scheme. I hope that people who have an interest in it would come together with us and take a look at how it can be achieved.