Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I thank the Minister. May I ask about older people’s care? An excess of €1 billion is being spent on older people’s care. Over recent years, concern has been expressed about the definite trend towards very large congregated settings for older people, which I think most people agree are not ideal by any means. On the one hand, there is a business kind of approach and support for that it seems within the Government and on the other, from the perspective of quality of care, we know that those kinds of large congregated settings are not desirable in any way at all. Yet the development of those centres seems to be going ahead apace. Has the Minister had discussions or is he examining developing new policies in light of the lessons learned from Covid, not least because of the problem of infection control in large settings but also because it is in older people’s interests to stay in their own homes or to have supported housing? What approach is the Minister taking? Is a new approach being taken on the basis of the experience of Covid in particular?