Mr. John Horan:

Yes, that is a matter of fact. I am getting to a point here, if I could, Deputy. The bed numbers are growing, the number of nursing homes has bee fairly static over the past three or four years. It has hardly changed. The average contract term has gone up from 19 months, about three years ago, and it is now coming in at 30 months. Private nursing homes are voluntarily sitting down to individually negotiate deals with the NTPF for the prices that will be paid under the fair deal scheme - taxpayers' money. So, more beds are being committed and the term that the people are willing to commit to is being extended. The whole thing adds up to a very large sum for the State's Exchequer so I would be very reluctant to say: "Let's have a new system."