Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I heard the Minister, Deputy Harney, state on the radio it would be voluntary, that there would be a choice. I do not know whether to believe her. She said there would be public-only consultant contracts and now they are turning out to be public and private consultant contracts. It is like grabbing mercury. One does not know what is on offer here. My understanding is that the scheme was to be voluntary. Perhaps I am wrong. Is the Minister of State saying people in nursing homes for three years will be assessed on the basis of the potential income from their family home, that the person in the bed next to them who is there four years will not be penalised in that way, and that there will be a third person in the future lying in the bed next to them who will be on the scheme that would require the family to pay, by way of selling the family home after the person's death?

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