Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have done our bit for the moment. I ask the Members of the Oireachtas to follow up on this matter through mechanisms other than this committee because we will be told it is not the business of the Committee of Public Accounts. It is, because it affects costs. I outlined it to put it on the record. That was the value for money report. We also spoke about a separate report. The committee recommended that the National Treatment Purchase Fund review its pricing mechanism. This response to the committee was probably drafted several weeks ago but it states that the NTPF is now close to completing the report and aims to discuss the draft report in the early part of this year. Once complete, the report of the review will then be submitted to the Department for consideration and for publication later in 2019.

There are two different reports. One is the value for money report and the other is the pricing report. We have seen neither yet and members can see some of the complications. The National Treatment Purchase Fund review of its pricing mechanism for long-term residential care in private voluntary nursing homes is ongoing.

That was one of the committee's recommendations last autumn and the Department is now saying that report is almost concluded. The pricing report, how much the nursing home has been paid, is a different issue from the value of money between public and private. It appears to me there are two, separate and independent mechanisms.