Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome all of the witnesses and thank them for their attendance and for their ongoing co-operation with the various Oireachtas committees, which is greatly appreciated. I also thank all of the staff of the HSE and the Department of Health for their efforts in the fight against Covid-19.

I wish to take up some of the points made earlier on costs. The breakdown of the 550 nursing homes involved is that 80% are private and 20% are public. Of the millions of euro that are spent, is there a disparity between the care and ancillary costs for people in public nursing homes as opposed to private homes? I refer to care, equipment and activities. Are those costs covered if a person is in a public nursing home as opposed to a private one? My understanding is that all of the ancillary costs in private nursing homes are paid for by residents or their families.