Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

It is not just a process. Legislation will provide, for the first time, for the establishment of a statutory office of a chief inspector for social services with statutory responsibilities for the registration and inspection of all nursing home places, both public and private. The chief inspector will inspect the homes against the regulations governing them and standards which will be set in law.

As legislation goes, the Act is not old. It was passed only 12 years ago but requires to be modernised. New standards for the long-term residential care of people have already been prepared and the relevant legislation will shortly be before the House.

Resources for older people were mentioned in the report. We are spending €1.2 billion and we will continue to increase funding substantially this year, which is almost over, and in 2007. The new funding scheme has brought the budget for the nursing home subventions scheme to €160 million this year. Only a small amount was available for this scheme when we started it. We have also trebled the number of home care packages to more than 3,000. These special care packages started only five years ago and we have increased funding for them to €142 million.

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