Seymour Crawford (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity of speaking in this debate on nursing home care, including care for the elderly and the disabled. It was totally frustrating to listen to the Taoiseach this morning stating that the Government had improved home help and home care. In counties Cavan and Monaghan, which I represent, the number of hours allocated for such care has been cut in half. Individuals are no longer being allocated care on an hourly basis, but by the minute. In addition, home help carers are being asked to fill in mileage forms that are virtually impossible to understand. The allowance is 19 cent per mile, but that is only from the home of the first patient to the home of the last one, provided they are in the one administrative area.

There are many excellent nursing homes in my constituency and my late mother was a beneficiary of one of them. They provide an excellent service to the aged and the handicapped. There is always a need for proper supervision. I fully support my party's demands for that regulation to be put in place immediately. A person or family must have the right to move from one nursing home to another if difficulties are encountered. That freedom to move is important. If the owners of nursing homes know clearly that people can move if they do not provide a proper service, that will be more important than anything an inspector can do.

Another major issue involved in the care of the elderly is the lack of funding for nursing home subvention. In my area of Cavan-Monaghan we have the most severe difficulties of anywhere in the country. On many occasions we have people in their 90s on waiting lists to get subvention because insufficient funding is provided. Nursing homes must provide heat, care and attention of all sorts. Their costs have increased dramatically over recent years as a result of direct charges for waste, increased fuel prices, increased labour costs and so on, yet there has been no increase in the subvention. It is difficult to explain to a 99 year old that out of a budget of more than €11 billion available to the Tánaiste, home care subvention for those who have established the State cannot be provided.

I welcome this debate organised by the Fine Gael Party. It has coincided with RTE's "Prime Time" programme which clearly exposed the failure of the Government to oversee the needs of the elderly and care for them. We in Fine Gael have offered to extend the Dáil sittings into July to have the necessary legislation introduced. It is vital that the Government take up that offer and deal with this critical issue now.

There are cases in my constituency where some difficulties were encountered, but the majority of nursing homes do an excellent job, which we must recognise. However, the funding must be put in place to ensure that all nursing homes can function properly and that the elderly and disabled are properly looked after.

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