Mr. Justin Moran:

One issue that comes up from people in receipt of the fair deal scheme is the additional charges that nursing homes can apply. If a person is in a nursing home, under the fair deal scheme bed and board will be covered but that person will have to pay additional charges out of income. Under the fair deal scheme, one pays 80% of income to the nursing home and retains 20% but we encounter people who are obliged to pay for everything, from incontinence pads to extra GP services and social activities, out of the 20% of income they are allowed to retain.

We are working on a piece of more detailed research in this area which we hope to publish in the coming weeks. We have certainly had experience of people on low incomes who, under fair deal, are supposed to have their choice of nursing home, but who find their choices severely restricted because of the income with which they would be left and the charges with which they would be faced.

In respect of the consultation on home care, Age Action Ireland and about 14 or 15 other NGOs have put together a discussion document which we sent to the Minister and to the political parties' health spokespersons. It identifies the issues we would like to see addressed in the home care consultation. They include clearly defining home care, ensuring we can include assistive technology in the provision of home care, and ensuring it is person centred and geared towards individual need. The consultation must also take account of the needs of the workers providing home help and home care. One of the unfortunate changes of recent years has been the reduction in the amount of time that each home help worker has for a client. There are people who might get 15 minutes in the morning and the evening. That can be very difficult for the worker and, obviously, for the client.

Another issue that must be addressed if we are to introduce a statutory home care scheme is how we are going to pay for it. However, we are hoping that the consultation does not focus primarily on that but rather on reaching agreement and consensus about a vision of home help and home care. We must also address the point made about people with dementia who need home help supports specific to that condition. Once we have that overall vision, we will figure out how to pay for it. It might require increased funds from general taxation or co-payments. We will approach that with an open mind. We would, however, be very concerned about any attempt to means test such a scheme. Many of our members have had quite negative experiences of medical cards in that respect.

On the costing of the State pension for 2012, if it was restored in 2017 it would cost just over €60 million. That is bringing everybody who lost out from 2012 to 2017 back into the bands they would have been in. The per annum cost of maintaining them in those rates would be around €10 million going forward. On the issue of the transition pension, I will hand over to my colleague, Ms Naomi Feely.