Paul McGrath (Westmeath, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute my tuppence worth to the state of nursing homes and what the Government is doing as regards care of the elderly. I am glad the Minister of State responsible, Deputy Seán Power, is here to hear my contribution. I hope he takes on board some of what I have to say.

I note in particular from the Minister of State's statement that when he introduced this Bill to the Dáil he said, "The aim of this scheme is to provide financial assistance to older people towards the cost of maintenance in private nursing homes". We all know there is something called the nursing home subvention scheme. I am sure that many other public representatives, like myself, have been inundated, not so much by the elderly but perhaps neighbours, nephews, nieces or cousins on their behalf, who face a major dilemma as regards how this nursing home subvention and care for the elderly works in this country. The situation is as outlined by my colleague, Deputy Ring. If some elderly person is in hospital and a neighbour comes in to visit, at some stage he or she will be told the elderly person is ready to be discharged and asked if he or she is taking responsibility for the person.

I came across a case recently involving a woman, Biddy, who was 85 and able to look after herself. A neighbour was told Biddy was being discharged the following day and it was expected the neighbour would look after her. This neighbour had looked after her over a long period out of the goodness of her heart. She would continue to look after her, but was being given total responsibility by the health services, although she was just a neighbour. She had no family connection with the woman and was not going to inherit her property. She would not gain any financial reward, and indeed did not want any. Nonetheless, this responsibility was being foisted on her.

She felt like an outcast, she said, on telling the hospital ward sister that she had a family to care for as well, and that while willing to do the best she could, she was not prepared to take full responsibility. The enormous burden of responsibility was being put on her shoulders, she felt. Because she was not prepared to accept it she was made to feel she was dealing inappropriately with this elderly person, her neighbour.

Will the Minister of State say whether this is what we are trying to do? Are we trying to force neighbours, distant relations and so on to look after the elderly? Again, as Deputy Ring pointed out, these are the people who built this State. All of these elderly people went through very difficult times in the formation of this State in the 1930s, the 1940s and the 1950s. I am not too old, but knocking on a bit, too, I suppose, like the Acting Chairman.

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