Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to elderly care. My colleague, Deputy Burke, has asked a number of questions about nursing homes. Some 31 private nursing homes have closed in the past three years. Most of those are in regional rural areas. Very few of them are city based. Mr. Gloster alluded to this earlier, when he said that when these homes close or have difficulties and their licenses are then removed, it creates further pressure on the State-run facilities and community and voluntary nursing homes. Is an active programme of investment and supports being developed and rolled out for community and voluntary nursing homes working in partnership with the HSE? Has a due diligence been done on some of these facilities, which may have been built a long time ago and may need upgrading? Are they being actively engaged with? Will Mr. Gloster talk us through where we are in that regard? PwC has done a report on this and we know the population is ageing. The issue needs to be addressed in the short to medium term, as opposed to the medium to long term.