Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

We want to make the practice of placing older people in residential care the last option. All the studies clearly show that people are much happier in their own homes and communities among family and friends. Patients also recover more quickly from illness when they are in that environment.

The home help facility has been a wonderful success and has made a great difference to the quality of life of the people who avail of it. A number of home care pilot schemes have been in place and these have worked exceptionally well. In many cases there is not much difference in the cost of residential care compared with a home care package. It is our intention to improve on the provision of home care. The Tánaiste mentioned that we will increase investment in community based services. The home care packages and home help have worked well. We are getting extremely good value for money. It is also what the patients want. We will continue to invest in this area.

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