John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yes, these are just for minor injuries. VHI SwiftCare has managed to grab the corporate name. Perhaps a renaming of the public facility might be in order. That is useful to know. I was aware that there were minor injury clinics but I did not appreciate that they were fulfilling the same function.

Respite care is an issue that is coming down the tracks. I was very interested in what Ms Magahy said about returning care to the community and what she might have to say resulting from the nursing home experience. Public nursing home experience is often pooh-poohed by some people. For example, I know that one of the big advantages that public nursing homes have over private nursing homes is the presence of GPs on-site pretty much all of the time. This is something that is open to private nursing homes but is something that could be significantly improved upon. What does Ms Magahy believe the public mood is around the nursing home experience and what can Sláintecare learn from that?

As constituency politicians, respite care is an issue that comes up a great deal. I want to float, however, a different idea. Politicians will have charted the increased number of children with autism who have now entered their teenage years with the condition and who are becoming adults with it, depending on where they are on the spectrum. There will be demands on society for some of those who are on the extreme end in respect of social housing provision and so on. However, has respite on the home site ever been considered? I know that there are parents, for example, who would like to access something like a seomra for their house or back garden where, if there is an outburst or where everybody needs a break, there is space on site. The respite, therefore, does not then have to take care out of or away from the family home in some instances but it is still being taken care of within the community. This is going to become a greatly increasing demand from within communities. There are multiple other questions I could ask but I will leave it at that because I would like to receive some responses on these questions, and I thank our guests.