Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

I welcome the discussion on the Health (Nursing Homes) (Amendment) Bill. It is important to reflect on and pay tribute to the elderly in our society and to remind ourselves of who they are and what they did for us. The people we are discussing are former workers and taxpayers who were around in the tough times, the 1950s and the dark 1980s, when we did not have the massive resources available today.

I also pay tribute to the carers and those who work in nursing homes. I commend them on their dedication and the excellent services they provide to many elderly people. Many who talk about and care for the elderly do not realise the valuable work they do in respect of these services. They deserve a special thanks. In a few cases the elderly have not been properly treated but most of those who work with the elderly do a tough job in a caring manner.

Modern society does not seem to respect and care for the elderly. On beautiful summer evenings elderly people in my constituency are locked into their homes at 7 p.m. They are afraid to answer the door because they fear attacks or anti-social behaviour. It is a scandal that elderly people are barricaded into their homes every night. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform needs to wake up and deal with this neglect of the elderly. I blame successive Governments for failing to do enough for the elderly.

Old age is not a sickness. The elderly are the survivors of their generation and deserve more care and respect. Many people in their 70s and 80s are still physically able to contribute to society. I commend any efforts made to ensure they are always included. Many services such as meals on wheels would not run without elderly people. Those in my constituency, Marino, Fairview, Killester and Clontarf, involved in this work are themselves elderly people yet they are often forgotten. We must in turn look after these people. I welcome the progressive increases in the budget over recent years which marks a serious start in helping elderly people and pensioners. The people who provide meals on wheels asked me to ask the Minister of State who will continue the service when they move on or die. The entire Cabinet must face up to this reality and plan for the next ten or 15 years.

The decision of the Supreme Court to reject the Government's Health (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill confirmed the biggest theft of our time. I have spoken before about the €3 billion stolen from more than 300,000 older people over 30 years. The implications of the Travers report were devastating and showed State-sanctioned elder abuse over three decades. It also showed a lack of political leadership by successive Governments and Ministers. Many elderly people and their families feel let down by this.

Approximately 444,000 people, or 11% of the population, are over 65 years of age. Of these, approximately 266,000 are over 70, one third of whom live alone, and 25,000 elderly people are in long-stay beds or nursing homes. A further 13,000 elderly people need high to maximum dependency care and they continue to live at home. It is important to give them the necessary support and back-up.

Most elderly people want to receive care in their homes or in the local community. We must plan for that and I welcome measures aimed in that direction. Many families of the elderly make sacrifices to provide the best possible care for them but the inadequacy of our nursing home subvention scheme causes hardship for them. They are conscious of cuts in home care services which is not acceptable. The failure to abolish the means test for the carer's allowance is a further attack on the most vulnerable in our society. Services for the elderly in disadvantaged areas are grossly under-resourced. These should be resourced and serviced in coming years.

I demand that the Government put in place adequate resources and a comprehensive infrastructure for care of the elderly. I welcome the small steps forward but more home care packages are required. This is an issue which is raised regularly in my constituency clinics and when I meet people on the doorsteps in Dublin North-Central. The elderly need home care packages. In Beaumont Hospital in my constituency a number of elderly patients are waiting for the home care package to be implemented so that they can leave the hospital. They cannot leave until an adequate home care package is provided. I urge the Minister of State and the Government to examine the situation. Hospital beds must be freed up to provide more services in accident and emergency departments. Home care packages should be regarded as a right for elderly people. They were workers and taxpayers who contributed to society in the tough times and they have a right to these services, and home care packages must be part of these services. I commend all the carers who work with the elderly, the disabled and children at risk.

I pay a special tribute to Máire Buckley, that beautiful, caring teacher who was killed last Sunday in the tragic bus incident. Máire was an extremely competent, professional and caring teacher who worked in the inner city all her life. This evening her body is being removed to the church in Seán McDermott Street. I pay tribute to Máire for her work, to the parents in her school and to all the families that Máire has helped over the past 25 years as a caring, professional teacher. She was dedicated and was an honourable member of the INTO, the Irish National Teachers Organisation. On behalf of all Members, I express my deepest sympathy to her family. It was a very tragic event which has been a nightmare for her family and her death has been a sad loss to society.

The north inner city and the whole north side of Dublin is in mourning today for Máire Buckley because she was the person who cared for children with special needs and for the poorest children in society. She worked very closely with the parents and children who were at high risk and she gave 100%. This is a sad day and this country has lost a great person, a patriot, a citizen who cared about people, about the elderly and about children.

The nursing home subvention scheme was introduced in 1993 on foot of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 and the Nursing Homes (Subvention) Regulations 1993. The purpose of the scheme, which is implemented by the Health Service Executive, is to provide financial assistance to persons towards the cost of maintenance in a private nursing home. The purpose of this Bill is to ensure that the existing subvention scheme for private nursing home care is grounded in primary legislation and to help the HSE to implement the scheme on a standardised basis across the country.

Section 2 of the legislation amends section 2 of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 to specify that subvention shall only be paid to a person maintained in a premises in which a majority of its residents are members of a religious order or priests of any religion, if the premises are a registered nursing home. Section 3 of the Bill replaces section 7 of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 with a new section which outlines the principles and policies underpinning the subvention scheme. A number of subsections provide for the method for making an application for a subvention; assessment of the degree of medical dependency of an applicant; assessment of the financial means of an applicant; review by the HSE of the medical dependency and means of a person receiving subvention; a system of appeal against decisions made by the HSE on a number of different aspects of the application process; an obligation on a nursing home owner to notify the HSE of the death or discharge of a person in receipt of subvention; and the recovery of a subvention payment procured through fraud or misrepresentation.

Section 6 of the Bill replaces section 14 of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990 with a new section which provides that regulations shall only be made after having been approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas. Under the current section 14, regulations are made before being laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas which may subsequently annul them.

The purpose of the Bill is to provide for the existing subvention scheme in primary legislation. Therefore, there will be no change to the current system of subvention payments as a result of this Bill. It is not expected there will be any significant financial implications either to persons availing of the scheme or to the Exchequer. It is important to highlight these sections in this debate.

I wish to deal with the issue of the rights of the elderly as citizens. I refer to the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament which is the voice of the elderly. I compliment a person from my constituency, Mr. Michael O'Halloran, and pay tribute to the people directly involved in the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament. I commend MichaelO'Halloran and his officials for the work they have done in the parliament.

The Irish Senior Citizens Parliament held its annual conference in Dublin on 21 and 22 April 2006. The parliament celebrated its tenth anniversary and 300 delegates attended, representing 95,000 members. The parliament is now the largest representative organisation of older people in Ireland. A total of 46 motions were debated, covering a wide range of topics dealing with issues affecting the quality of life of older people. The motions which were adopted will contribute to the policy development of the parliament. Motions covered issues dealing with chiropody, living alone allowance, cancer screening, resourcing of long-term care, discrimination in insurance, improvements in the State pension for older people, consultation and planning issues and others, which if implemented would greatly improve the living standards of older people.

The parliament was also addressed by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, who spoke about the development of pension policy and the need to provide adequate pensions in the future for retired people. He also dealt with his wish to see a better pension scheme for existing pensioners. All Members will support these proposals.

I commend the parliament as a very worthy body. It held three workshops, one of which dealt with the subject of pension policy in Ireland. This workshop was addressed by Professor Gerry Hughes from the Economic and Social Research Institute. He covered a wide range of issues and outlined the way in which pensions could be greatly improved for the existing pensioners as well as securing pensioners' incomes in the future. Another workshop dealt with the organisation of older people at local level and the relationship with the local partnerships. This workshop was addressed by Fiona English, equal opportunities programme manager of the Wexford area partnership. She outlined the benefits of having older people well organised at local level and having a good relationship with their local area partnership. The third workshop dealt with the subject of older people's health. It was addressed by Dermot Smith, assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Children. He outlined the present proposals by Government, in particular the home care packages, which are designed to assist older people to remain in their own homes as long as possible. He also dealt with other issues relating to the health of older people.

The workshops provided a lively opportunity for the delegates to question and discuss issues of importance to older people in the area of pensions, local organisation and health policy. In his presidential address the president of the Irish Senior Citizens Parliament dealt with the issues connected with over-crowding in accident and emergency departments. He contended that part of the reason for the problems in accident and emergency departments was they had to deal with people who have accidents due to drink or drugs overdose. He called for some initiatives to try to reduce these numbers and to free up the facilities available in accident and emergency departments. I welcome the comments made in the parliament. This is a group of elderly Irish citizens who have put forward sensible proposals about care for the elderly and give their views on dealing with the problems in accident and emergency departments.

I welcome the debate on the Health (Nursing Homes) (Amendment) Bill. It is important to face the reality that our elderly people are not being given the maximum support. I pay tribute to many groups in my constituency. For example, there are the care services on Sybil Hill Road, which provide excellent services, and the Clontarf and Marino active retirement associations. These are people who go out regularly and keep their eye on their neighbour. It is old-fashioned community spirit, but it is something that is lacking in the wider society. I understand the problems in the wider society, because everybody is so busy and people have problems at work and issues with time, but we should all learn from the elderly, from their experience in life and from their vision for life which is one of caring for and looking after older people. Let us remember that many of our elderly have the experience of life and can still make a massive contribution to the State. They have done excellent work, and we should look on them as a valuable resource in society. Earlier, I mentioned the people who work for meals on wheels in their late 60s and 70s and the valuable service they provide. These older people are a valuable resource.

Another important issue is that of people with disabilities and the valuable work older people do in providing care and other services for adults with disabilities. Older people, with their caring nature and their experience, can have a fantastic relationship with people with disabilities. On some of the projects on which older people are involved, they have done magnificent work, and we see the reaction of the people, especially those with an intellectual disability such as those with Down's syndrome. They have a very good, open relationship with older people and a respect for older people that we in the wider society often forget, which is sad — we are losing focus on that in the broader debate.

I commend older people on their magnificent work with people with disabilities. The Special Olympics was another example of that, as a large number of the 30,000 volunteers were retired people. More important, however, is the amount of work they got involved in afterwards, when all the cameras and the media went away, and the amount of work that goes on in every part of the country where older people are involved in providing excellent services for people with disabilities.

This is a very important debate. We need services and home care packages and we need an inspector for nursing homes but, above all, we need respect and compassion for our elderly.

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