Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
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I will come back to another health issue, namely, the fair deal scheme and the current disparity between public and private homes. Last weekend, I heard that a private nursing home gets €950 per week per bed, whereas a public nursing home just a little further down the road cost €1,900 per bed per week. The problem at the moment is that private nursing homes are closing and 16 have closed since January. I understand that one Department has something like €47 million or €49 million available to the private nursing home system to assist them but the homes do not know when that money will be made available, even though the funding is in the budget. The whole issue about public expenditure is to make sure that where someone provides a service, because that person is unable to get adequate funding then that service is no longer available and the service comes back then under the control of the State or the State must step in. Why would a Department delay a process that really needs to be sorted very fast in order to prevent the closure of essential services? This aspect does not just relate to nursing homes but can apply to other areas as well where, due to delays in Departments in dealing with an issue, there are huge consequences, which is exactly what has happened in this case.