Paudge Connolly (Cavan-Monaghan, Independent)

I, too, support the amendment. As outlined, there is a crisis with the old and I would not blame them for feeling like a burden on society or on their families. When people feel they are a burden on society or on their families, the only thing they want to do is die. I often hear that sentiment expressed. These old people feel they will drain the family finances or will see the family home sold from under them. The family home is something for which they have worked all their life and they do not want to see it evaporate.

We talk about giving subvention to people and enhanced levels of subvention. I do not know if it is the best value for money. Carers could do a lot of work if they received something akin to the amount of money it costs to subvent somebody in a nursing home. The figure of €700 per week was mentioned. Carers could do a lot in the community if they got that amount.

People want to live and to die at home. They do not want to move to an institution. There is a mindset that when somebody assesses the elderly person, it is not to see how the person's situation in the home can be enhanced but to see how soon he or she will have to go into an institution. It is often considered that people cannot be discharged from general hospitals to their own homes because they are not suitable. If people send out a distress signal that they need a grant or a few euro to put in a shower or heating, it should be considered, yet it seems as if every hurdle possible is put in their way, including the requirement that visits must be made by people from the county council and the health board, including an occupational therapist. For a long time in the south Monaghan area, there were no occupational therapists to carry out assessments on people's homes. A little common sense is required. An assessment by a doctor and a visit from somebody from the county council is required even if only a shower or a downstairs toilet is required or to make life a little more comfortable for people.

It is not always a case of the money not being there or of it not being spent. It is a case of how well targeted is the spending. I do not believe it is always targeted in the right direction. If a person could remain at home if provided with a shower or a downstairs toilet, one would avoid that person taking up a bed in a nursing home. It would also avoid that person having to sell the family home to finance that bed. One could avoid many problems in that regard.

Health boards should re-examine their way of thinking. They should stop thinking they must put someone into an institution. There is no scarcity of policy in respect of care of the aged but those policies are not being translated into action. Will the Minister target the money a little better and try to give it back to the community? There should be an ethos within the health service to enable people to go back to their homes. In many cases, their homes may not be as tidy or as nice as a nursing home but it is often the place where they want to die and many people know when their time is up.

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