Beverley Flynn (Mayo, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter and share in the shock and horror expressed by my colleagues with regard to the revelations made in "Prime Time". It is a pity that it takes media exposure such as this to spur everybody into action. However, I welcome the Minister of State's announcement with regard to establishing the social services inspectorate on a statutory basis. He will also publish a Bill by the end of the year which deals with training, the rights of patients and other important issues which have major consequences for the elderly in public and private facilities.

There was no mention of this issue in the programme for Government or the Government's legislative programme. However, it is better late than never. I have met many different nursing home groups over the past 12 months and would not like for people to think that there is large-scale abuse in all nursing homes. Many of them are very well run and many private nursing homes will welcome the fact that the inspectorate will examine both public and private facilities as this is a development they have been seeking for some time. Therefore it is somewhat surprising that legislation in this area has not been forthcoming before now.

The Government has invested a great deal of money in care for the elderly over recent years. However, there is an issue which has been of some concern to me and I have raised it in respect of all health related matters in the Dáil recently. Many of the current care packages to care for the elderly are geared towards Dublin and the eastern region. I refer specifically to the ten-point plan to deal with the accident and emergency crisis. Of the 500 additional home care grants which have been allocated, 400 are for Dublin and 100 for the rest of the country. How many additional home care packages will that mean for County Mayo?

The Minister of State highlighted that the maximum rate of subvention based on maximum dependency is approximately €190. However, the discretionary payment that the Health Service Executive has applied in the east of the country is an additional €300 to €400 per week. This means that a person in County Mayo can get a maximum subvention of €220 per week and if they are fortunate enough to be considered a hardship case, they will get €300. However, another elderly person in similar circumstances will receive €600 per week. I raised the matter with the Tánaiste who acknowledged the problem and said that she knows of nursing homes on different sides of the same street which fall into separate health board areas and get a different rate of subvention. We must bring uniformity to the system.

Regarding contract beds, tenders were recently taken throughout the country for 500 additional places for intermediate care and 100 places for high-dependency care. I see from the Minister of State's notes that he has procured 95 beds for intermediate care and 47 for high dependency, but not one is in County Mayo. Virtually no nursing home in County Mayo tendered for those contract beds. I have come across two and both have been rejected. The reason they did not apply in the first instance is that when they contacted the Health Service Executive, they were told they had to have a minimum of ten beds available. Why must a nursing home in County Mayo have ten beds available when only 97 are required throughout the entire country? It is illogical and makes no sense. It means that those three aspects of the ten-point plan have virtually no relevance in County Mayo. I highlight the issue because it is all part and parcel of care for the elderly. Problems in accident and emergency services and nursing homes are not restricted to the cities. They exist throughout the country and if we are to address the issue seriously, we must do so on a countrywide basis.

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