Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

Certainly, it would not be fair if it was the case that a person was in a residential care centre and, therefore, we were not providing that requirement to the person. Certainly, that is not our position. I was in the Gallery and heard that stated several times. I would be most concerned if that was happening.

I wish to point out that when a person is in residential care, whether the set-up is public, private or voluntary, the person is being provided with 24-hour care and with a level of service. These people are no longer able to stay in their own homes. Let us suppose a person receives primary care services through the medical card or whatever and is provided with therapies and so on. Those services are available at a certain level. The service is a scarce resource. The service provider will be concentrating on those people who are residing alone, perhaps. Such interventions might keep people at home for longer. The fact that a person is in long-stay care, regardless of the centre and whether it is public, private or voluntary, means that person is less of a risk because of the 24-hour care and service provision.