Mr. Odhrán Ó hUallacháin:

In regard to the costs, on a rough search this morning before we came in, according to an article in The Irish Times the average rate for a public nursing home in 2018 was €1,564 a week. The cost for one person for 52 weeks would be €81,328. For 26 of our clients who are not able to live at home and have to be in a nursing home, the cost would be €2.1 million a year. If we consider what Mr. Schäler has said our asking price is, I would say it is a saving. What is not taken into account is that if these people were not in a nursing home, they would have to be in an acute hospital. At a committee meeting in 2019, the Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, who was Minister for Health at the time, said the average running cost of an inpatient hospital bed across acute hospitals is €878 per night. Members might do some maths on that and calculate the cost of a week's stay or a month's stay for someone who was not getting these interventions. Looking at the health economics of it, what we are trying to implement is a short-term investment for long-term gain.