Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I support the amendment and will also speak to amendment No. 15. Deputy Burton has made the points about isolation very well. I recognise the picture she has painted. However, but for the new private nursing home facilities completed in recent years in my constituency, we would have a serious crisis in the provision of nursing home places in Cavan and Monaghan. That is a fact of life. This tells us that there has been serious under-investment in public nursing home provision. Many people by preference or need would opt in the first instance for the public facility, which in the case of St. Mary's in Castleblaney in my county of Monaghan is par excellence and is a wonderful facility.

I will share a point with Deputy Burton, who spoke about getting out to visit the pub. I pay tribute to a former county manager in Monaghan, who died last year in his 90s and who with great foresight many years ago introduced the very first little bar in a public nursing home facility in St. Mary's in Castleblaney. At the time he said that he was only thinking of himself and his future. While he acted very wisely and with great foresight, he never had to use the facility except as a visitor. It is a wonderful facility, which allows visitors and residents the opportunity to have a drink together and converse in a pleasant environment. I commend such facilities to other nursing homes.

I recall what Deputy Cowley said last night on another Bill making its way through the House with great haste when he referred to the community sector. The vision shown by Deputy Cowley and his community in the establishment of St. Brendan's Village in Mulranny in County Mayo is the greatest example of community nursing home care. I personally commend the Deputy for his dedication and commitment to that sector over many years. I have had the opportunity to visit St. Brendan's Village and, as anyone would be, I was greatly impressed.

Development within the community sector is largely embryonic. The public sector is critically under-funded and under-resourced. Insufficient public places are available allowing the opportunity for the development of private nursing home care particularly when one remembers that the Health Service Executive, formerly the health boards, is buying bed access in private nursing facilities to compensate for the absence of places in the public sector. This reminds me of the Tánaiste's, Deputy Harney's, great love for buying hospital procedures as opposed to providing for them within the network of acute hospital care.

The Tánaiste's preferences towards the private sector need careful watching on the part of the Minister for Finance and his colleagues. I do not believe the Minister reflects the views she has been proud to articulate when she said, for instance, she wishes to see minimal State intervention, including in health care provision. That is an incredible statement by a Minister for Health and Children. Following the view of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell, that inequality is good for the economy, it must be a worrying relationship for the Minister for Finance and others whom I would credit with a much more acute awareness of social need.

These amendments are not prescriptive. They seek a commitment on the Minister's part to a review in order to determine the tax return. A careful assessment must be made of what is due to the Exchequer in terms of tax relief arrangements and reliefs in terms of public moneys. The highest standards should always apply in regard to the exercise of these reliefs. It is particularly important that they are weighed up as part of the ongoing review the Minister established following budget 2005 of the long list of capital-based reliefs covering a wide range of areas from high-rise cark park facilities and holiday homes to private nursing homes and other private clinic facilities.

Critically, private nursing home reliefs must be compatible with health and welfare criteria. This must be seen in the round in regard to our failure to properly resource public nursing home provision as a consequence of seeking to look after private interests in terms of investors. There is not a balanced approach under the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children in terms of supporting the community sector for which Deputy Cowley argued so articulately yesterday. The influence of the Progressive Democrats Party on the Government's approach, both fiscally and otherwise, means there is every reason to be greatly concerned.

I strongly urge the Minister to undertake the propositions in amendments Nos. 12 and 15. In the light of the information consequently provided, we must make an informed decision as to what then should happen.

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