Colm Burke (Cork North-Central, Fine Gael)

On long-term care in Cork, as regards people who are in hospital and then need to be transferred to long-term care, are any proposals in place to develop additional long-term facilities in Cork? While a lot of upgrading of existing nursing home facilities owned by the HSE has been done, we have not actually added anything new in real terms to the number of beds in Cork. Heather House has been done but, again, my understanding is that it is still not fully operational. There is then a question about long-term planning because the age profile, as outlined by the HSE in its own report, is changing. It is about making sure we have adequate supports so the maximum number of people can stay at home without having to go into long-term care, but we will still need those beds and long-term care as well.