Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are some excellent complexes for older people in my constituency, Cork North-Central. One of them, in Knocknaheeney, is a beautiful place, with excellent wraparound services, and the people who live there, in the heart of the community, love it. They come from within the community. The problem is there are not enough of these places. More of them should be rolled out, and the disappointing point I have taken from this meeting is that not enough funding or resources are going into their delivery. Cork City Council has done some excellent work on such projects.

However, it is about the amount of money and staffing resources needed to bring these complexes to fruition. We have some excellent ones but we do not have enough of them.

I am conscious my time is limited. I am being contacted by people who are being affected by long-term equity loans they took out on their homes during the middle of the Celtic tiger period. The problem is they cannot access the fair deal scheme because the HSE will not engage with the people who hold the equity loans on their properties. Have the Department officials looked at this issue? Is there a solution because people who need to go into nursing homes and need access to the fair deal scheme are being blocked out because of the rules around equity loans.