Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will ask it later on but I wanted to get Mr. Daly's view on it.

To come back to what Mr. Daly said in his opening statement that a quarter of State funding for nursing home care is going towards public nursing home costs. They are only caring for 20% of residents. That means that 80% are in voluntary and private nursing homes. That is very unfair and the figures Mr. Daly is throwing out do not sound right to me. One third of all the money that is being spent is going towards 20% of the care. That means two thirds is going to 80% of the care. Straight away there is something wrong and there are questions marks over that. In my own county of Kilkenny, there is one nursing home and eight voluntary and private homes. I get representation on a continuous basis from the private nursing homes in my area, which is natural being a local politician. The voluntary sector has to fundraise. I know that because there are one or two of them very near to me. I give towards the fundraising as well because it is just to keep the doors open. This sounds very wrong. One nursing home in Kilkenny costs €1,596 per week while in the voluntary and private sectors, it costs €901 per week. That is almost €600 of a difference, or 77%, according to the chart in front of us. That is massive money. I want to keep all the services open because they are all needed but that shows there is an awful anomaly between the public, private and voluntary spheres.