Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the Opposition has a job to do in pointing out areas where difficulties exist. I am not referring specifically to what the Deputy said in his contribution. In general, for some time we have heard continual knocking of the health service. The majority of people who avail of our health service have a pleasant experience. The difficulties are being addressed. Perhaps in some cases results are not being achieved as quickly as people would like. It is not fair on the people working in the health service to see newspaper reports and hear reports on the news or radio shows, in which people continually knock what they do. Ultimately these people make a contribution and try to do their best to improve the service and provide a level of health service care for their colleagues in the community. There is no real appreciation of what they do.

We did not make a number of changes at Christmas and that is why we have tabled some of these amendments. When the scheme was introduced in 1993, it was not intended that it was to cover the cost of the care. It was to assist in funding the cost of care. It is now proposed to eliminate the three rates and have one rate of €300. We have discussed the subvention scheme and nobody said it was not without its faults, including me.

Assessing the family home was introduced in the scheme in 1993 and despite many different Ministers occupying the seat in Hawkins House since then, it has not changed. What we are now introducing will only last until 31 December. On 1 January 2008 a new scheme will be in operation. There is no guarantee that the two Deputies who contributed today will have the responsibility to introduce that legislation. Regardless of what side we are on, if we are lucky enough to be returned to the House we will have an opportunity to contribute to that and to decide on the scheme to be introduced. We have studied the funding of long-term care upside down and inside out. The time has come to introduce a new scheme and we have indicated that we intend to introduce that legislation in the House in the autumn to take effect from 1 January 2008.

The Deputy's throwaway comments on cutbacks serve no purpose. I pointed out that an additional €85 million will be provided this year and that we expect an additional 2,000 people to benefit from the changes we will announce for this year alone. In the new scheme public and private will be treated in the same way. A number of measures are being taken to address the inappropriate use of beds. The investment we have made in home care packages will contribute significantly to resolving that issue. We have a history, which people accept, of people with an income contributing to the cost of the care. We do not ask them to pay for the total cost and that is what we are doing with the new scheme, a fair deal on nursing home care, to be introduced in the autumn.

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