Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have not heard anything back but we had a meeting in the past two months with the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, and his housing team to advocate for that piece. When we talk about supporting somebody coming out of a nursing home or stepping somebody out of the NRH, regrettably, €30,000 or €38,000 will not sort out that problem for us. If a person is putting a bedroom downstairs with a wet room and expanding the doorframes in a house that might have been built before there were standards for doorframes, that is more than €36,000. I have strongly advocated that the review should be a favourable review upwards.

I also think the guidance or circular that is issued to the local authorities from the Department is probably very tight in its wording. There has to be a space for exceptional need. We understand the definition of "exceptional need". An exceptional need is when somebody is ready for discharge from the NRH or somebody is in a bed when they could be home. That exceptional need is where they will not be able to afford to do it because of income capacity. It has to be balanced. At the end of the day, the State is paying for it all. We are either paying for the bed in the nursing home or we could pay for the refurbishment. We have to think about the person who would have a better outcome by returning home. That exceptional need will still come out of the one pot of the Department of public expenditure. There has to be a way of having those conversations.