Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

With regard to this group of amendments, I welcome Deputy Twomey's decision regarding amendment Nos. 8 and 11. As I have indicated previously, I find greater favour with the amendments proposed by Deputy McManus, namely Nos. 9 and 10, but only in the context of our not being able to establish with the Minister of State and his colleagues in Government the absolute requirement of the exception of the family home.

It is absurd to even suggest this is not a consequence that will be faced by many people. As Deputy Twomey said, it is already a reality. I have previously put on record in the House the situation of a family in my own home town. There are many cases but one in particular drove the issue home to me very clearly. An elderly lady had to go into nursing home care. She had very little by way of savings but the family home, the simple, council-built home that had appreciated in value over time, was factored into her means assessment because none of her offspring was living there. They were living elsewhere in the country and overseas. The HSE's drive to force that lady to dispose of her home forced her adult children to face all of the effects of the loss of a parent, even though their mother was in a nursing home facility. The disposal of the home and of all their mother's personal effects had to be endured. The memories of their childhood growing up there had to be dispersed, displaced and disposed of. I personally witnessed the pain of all of that and it was absolutely harrowing. These were young adults who would come home to visit their mother and stay in the home where they grew up. Now, because that home is no longer in the family's possession, they are faced with the added burden of the cost of accommodation when they come home to visit their mother in the nursing home. This is already an expensive trip, as three of them have to make their way back to Ireland to do so. They now have to come to their home town and find there is no longer a home for them to visit. They are forced into hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation. It is an absolutely dreadful scenario and that is what the Government is compounding. That is what the Government will force more and more families to face.

If one thinks ahead, the scenario is equally dreadful. Thankfully, the lady is still alive but when she dies, where will her family gather to grieve? Where will they gather to think back on the years of their childhood, the years they shared with their parent in the nursing home? Where will the lady be waked? There will be no home open to her neighbours, friends and community to come to sympathise. What is the Government doing? Does the Minister of State have any idea of the consequences of what is being proposed for the reality of life for families throughout the country? This is the most poorly thought-out legislation put before us for some time. I know it is not all the fault of the Minister of State. He has been entrusted with the role and responsibility of having to defend the Bill but where are the drafters coming from, the people to whom the Taoiseach referred? Where are they living? How distant have they and those in the Department who advise on the preparation of such legislation become from the reality of life for ordinary people in our communities? It is shameful and a disgrace. The Bill is compounding a pain that is already in evidence and making the situation even worse.

I indicated during my contribution to the Second Stage debate that I welcomed the presentation of a Bill that would place the subvention scheme on the basis of primary legislation but what is it that we have before us? If the Minister of State holds his current line, particularly in this area — although that is not to say there are not other areas of the Bill which are seriously flawed — other Deputies and I will have no choice but to oppose the Bill outright. People throughout the State, when they become aware of the reality and see the pain the outworking of this legislation will cause, as I have described, will also oppose it and the Government will deservedly face a very irate public.

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