Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I wish to share my time with Deputies McGrath and Gormley.

I welcome the opportunity to address the issue of care for older people. This issue has come to the fore in the media and public life generally in recent times. The issue always existed. Older people have always needed the care of their families, their communities and the State.

Many in the House will recall the dedicated work of the late Willie Bermingham who founded the organisation ALONE and who almost single-handedly exposed the scandal of older people living and dying alone and forgotten in our midst. That was happening at a time when older traditions of large families and wide family support systems were breaking down. Care for older people has greatly improved since, but there are still far too many older people on the margins in our society, often living alone, with inadequate fixed incomes, without proper support and isolated in their final years. Many are long-stay patients in hospitals not because of illness but because the State does not provide the appropriate residential facilities to accommodate them.

The Leas Cross scandal exposed not only the abuse of older people in that nursing home but, equally scandalously, the failure of the State properly to regulate nursing homes. We are still waiting for legislation and a regulatory framework with adequate numbers of inspectors and enforcement. Most old people want to live their lives as close to their families and friends as they can, in their own homes preferably and with the best supports the State can offer. They deserve no less and every effort by the State should be geared towards this end.

One of the main State-provided supports is the home help service. This month, however, home help workers had to demonstrate to demand proper pay. The service is inadequate from the points of view of service users and the home help workers. These services should be expanded and developed along proper lines with decent pay and conditions for home help workers and the provision of the hours of service that older people need.

Many fear that the only way they can be cared for as they grow older is through selling their homes and using the proceeds to finance long-term nursing home care. In many cases that is the sad reality because there is no family support and State supports are inadequate. The Government needs to look long and hard at its own policies which are driving this process and pushing many older people into nursing home care who neither want nor need to be there.

The spiralling price of property creates a pressure on older people to sell their homes. This arises directly out of the Government's fundamentally flawed market-driven approach to housing. At the other end of the process this Government heavily subsidises the private nursing home sector through tax breaks as exposed by the recent review of tax reliefs. These reliefs are driven not by the needs of older people but by the profit motive of the private operators in the nursing home sector. In this sector, as in the wider health system, two-tier provision operates.

Those older people who can afford it can avail of the best care and accommodation while others are left behind. Instead of subsidising such a flawed approach the Government should use public money for direct provision for older people, including care and support for people in their homes and the development of local authority housing for the elderly. Our local authorities need to be funded to provide more accommodation for older people, including places where they can remain independent while availing of on-site facilities in a community setting.

A recent ESRI survey has shown that 60% of people oppose equity release schemes whereby older people are encouraged to sell their homes to provide themselves with long-term care. There are serious concerns about these schemes. Speaking at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Service, Mr. Liam O'Reilly, chief executive of the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority stated that the authority was concerned about the potential mis-selling of home reversion products on the market because they are unregulated. He said it would support the introduction of legislative amendments that would require these products and their providers to be regulated.

Everyone in this society has a responsibility to ensure that older people are empowered to live their lives to the fullness of their ability. If we are spared, we will all be there eventually. Individuals in paid employment have a responsibility to ensure that they provide for the future as best they can. Employers and Government have an equal obligation to facilitate this provision through proper pension arrangements.

See this speech in context