Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

What about the 30,000 people waiting for their medical card since the beginning of January? The Minister of State cannot blame that on the GPs because that was his own problem. People should stop being unrealistic and lying to the people.

In his contribution, the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, talked about the 850 additional long-stay beds. He then referred to "a medium-term service level agreement with the private sector to deliver additional long-stay beds", but does anyone remember where they heard that before? In 2003, the previous Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, and the Minister of State, Deputy Callely, announced those beds at least five or six times. Those beds were supposed to go to Cork and Dublin. Perhaps the idea of the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, is a new one, but the previously announced beds never came to fruition. They were quietly dropped when nobody would take them up. It is more Government spin because there are not an extra 850 beds, private or public, in the system. They are not being promised or delivered and one must be realistic about this.

The Government's response to the Opposition concerning nursing home charges included a plan to establish, after 29 years, a clear and legally sound basis for contributions by care recipients to the cost of their shelter and maintenance in residential care. The previous Minister, Deputy Martin, did not bring forward that proposal voluntarily. He was dragged kicking and screaming through the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children before making those changes. He squealed his way through the committee and claimed the reason he never knew about the illegal nursing home charges was because he never read the memos and nobody ever told him.

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