Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I support the amendment as far as it goes, but I would also like to say something further. I live in a second-hand council house in Straffan, County Kildare, outside the Dublin area, which is valued at approximately €400,000. If any of my neighbours had to go to St. Vincent's in Athy, or the excellent State facility in Maynooth, they would have to sell their house to pay for it. Such is the effect of this measure. I want the Minister, who is from Kildare, to explain to me how a line was drawn around Dublin with a €500,000 limit. If he goes to Leixlip, a place with which he is very familiar, for those on one side of the bridge, the limit is €500,000 but for those on the other side €300,000. The penalty is quite extraordinary in that regard.

It is also extraordinary that this is the only example that I can find in legislation where a means test takes into account the value of the family home. The most stringent means test that one can have applied is that of a community welfare officer, and he does not take any account of the value of one's house. The house can be worth €2 million, €3 million or €200 million, and if one has no other income, the community welfare officer will assist one. He will not ask one to sell one's house to feed oneself. Essentially, this measure states that people in modest homes will have to sell their houses, because they are sick and old and unable to stay at home, to get into a nursing home or State long-stay facility.

Universalism in many areas takes no regard of the value of homes. In education, the sons of the wealthy can have free first, second and third level education without anyone saying that their houses should be sold to pay for their schooling. The same is true in health, since up to the age of 65 there is no extra charge for Tony O'Reilly, a neighbour of mine in Kildare. If he falls ill, he goes into hospital and pays a minimal charge the same as everyone else. Why, when people are old and unwell, at their most vulnerable, are they expected to sell their house to pay the State for care? We do that to no one except old people who are ill, which is the only reason they are in nursing homes.

Nonsense has been spoken about whether someone's house is worth, €1 million, €2 million, €5 million or €200 million. The vast majority of people are not in that category but will be caught in the trap set by a Minister from County Kildare, who should know the price of houses there. I am sure that he does, although I do not claim that the provision was his creature in the first instance.

We will certainly vote against this Bill and in favour of the amendment before us, which goes some of the way towards what we would like to see. I ask the Minister to reconsider the effect that this crazy measure will have on his own constituents in County Kildare, if on no one else.

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