Mr. Pat McLoughlin:

We have no indication of the cost but some research has been done on intensive homecare packages that were initially concentrated on people with dementia in residential care in hospitals. It was very interesting to see that no night cover was sought. People who came out of hospitals were able to attend existing day care centres. Our experience is that carers will not abuse intensive homecare. People do not want other people in their houses unless they absolutely need them. It would be a game changer in terms of delaying people going into residential care, which would be a significant saving to the State if we look at the trajectory of the number of the beds that will be needed. It will be a major change. We have no information on what the funding model should be or could be.