Ms Sandra Tuohy:

On the number of people entering the nursing home support scheme, NHSS, we have seen a significant reduction in the number of applicants. However, that probably has more to do with the fact that we have increased the number of home support hours and the overall wraparound services we can deliver to people to maintain them in their own homes. Obviously the reform agenda of the HSE and the Department is to support more people to remain at home for longer so we are seeing the impact of that beginning to happen. We are trying to support people with home support at night in their own homes to reduce the overall number of people who must be admitted to nursing homes to receive the appropriate care. We still have access to private nursing homes and to public facilities. We are trying to do rehabilitation within them at the moment but as Dr. Kennelly has outlined, significant number of nursing homes are closed to admissions because of ongoing outbreaks. Nevertheless, we remain able to bring in some patients whose needs really could not be met in the community. We are getting access to some facilities but not all.