Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of that. I have asked numerous questions about this. It is very important for us as a committee, as well as the wider body politic, to understand what that means. I have a few questions about nursing homes, funding and recruitment. Regarding the recruitment of staff for home care packages, I always adopt the escalator approach. The longer we can keep people in their homes, the better for them. It is financially the best option by far. Then they may have to go to a nursing home and then if they are in an acute bed it is more expensive. It is an escalator approach. The longer we keep people at home the better. We have a national crisis in home care, home care packages and staff. I know about this personally outside of my own politics and work. I believe it is necessary that we have some form of registered employment agreement to set hours and set pay for people who work in this sector. The idea that people working for agencies are getting a fraction of the total pay is ridiculous. People are having to go off privately, if they can, to get care. Do the witnesses agree that we need some form of employment agreement process to standardise wages and make it enticing for people who want to do that work?

I do not expect the witnesses to have these figures but I ask them to provide them to the committee. Over the last five years, are there any areas in the country where nursing homes, either private ones or ones owned by various religious institutions, have been bought or taken over by the HSE? They could have been bought and taken over or just taken over. I do not expect the witnesses to have those figures now. I know there are examples but we need to find out where they are because some nursing homes are falling over and I believe more are going to fall over.

My last question is on a Tipperary issue. We have a specific case in Roscrea where the nursing home there will not meet HIQA requirements and is about to be closed. The witnesses are well aware of this because I have raised it with the HSE numerous times. I am referring to the Dean Maxwell Community Nursing Home. We are in a process across politics of trying to get a solution to this. Meetings took place a couple of months ago. Where are we at as regards how we can ensure long-stay beds remain there? Is there an overarching view of how we are going to have nursing home care in one of the biggest towns in Tipperary in the future, considering that the sole public nursing home there is about to be closed because of the HIQA situation?