Mr. Michael Harty:

The current care budget is nearly €1.3 billion, of which almost €1 billion - just over €900 million - is ring-fenced for residential care which, in general, is not people's first choice. The Minister has stated in the Dáil that approximately 33% to 40% of people in residential care do not necessarily need to be there. The figure of €69 million in savings comes from making more funds available for home care services and moving people out of residential care back into the community and home, which is where they would prefer to be and which would result in significant savings for the Government. Studies show that approximately 4.5% of the over-65s are in residential care, about 30% to 40% above the figure for our European peers. In ring-fencing funds under the fair deal scheme we are actually creating an artificial demand for residential care places and pushing people towards that form of care, rather than doing what the Minister suggests and let the money follow the patient. We advocate that people should be assessed and offered a certain level of support but letting them choose whether it should be provided through residential care, community care or home care services. In our view, there would be a significant movement of people from residential care to home care settings which would bring consequential savings.