Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

We are now clinically supporting 10,000 older persons who require respite care by providing them with medical supports in their own home. Four years ago, no such home support with clinical back-up was available. This represents great progress. There are 28,000 older people in residential care, which is higher than the international average for people over the age of 65. In the past, many people with low levels of dependency ended up in residential care because in-home and community supports were not in place.

The new nursing home support scheme, A Fair Deal, will make a major impact on the ability of families to afford long-term care. We currently have an unsustainable situation where 90% of the cost of care is funded in respect of public facilities and effectively only 40% in the case of private facilities. The increased affordability of long-term care will have a significant impact in terms of what are broadly referred to as late discharges in our acute system, which number approximately 700. This presents a major challenge for the acute system.

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