Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 8, line 14, to delete "shall specify" and substitute "shall, subject to section 33(2), specify".

Amendments Nos. 2 and 99 to 102, inclusive, collectively address an issue raised by my colleague, Deputy Reilly, on Committee Stage. The Deputy had proposed that the basis for charges for public nursing home care should be laid before the Houses of Oireachtas. It is my intention that information on the goods and services that make up the public bed price, that is, the cost components, would be openly available to the public. Thus, in the interests of transparency, I am happy to accept the spirit of Deputy Reilly's original proposal.

One will note that the wording differs somewhat from that proposed by Deputy Reilly. The reasons for this alteration are twofold - first, to ensure legal clarity in terms of what exactly the Minister must lay before the Houses and, second, to ensure consistency and correct alignment with the definition of long-term residential care services and other directly related provisions within the Bill. For that reason, I ask my colleagues to support these amendment in place of the amendment No.100 which has been resubmitted by the Deputy.

Amendment No. 103 proposes that the HSE, in determining the cost of care services, shall stipulate the services provided. As explained on Committee Stage, this amendment is unnecessary as the definition of long-term residential care services in section 3 already provides that the HSE must specify the health and personal care services to be provided when designating facilities for the purposes of the scheme. Moreover, this amendment could now conflict with amendment No. 99 which stipulates that the Minister, following consultation with the HSE, shall be ultimately responsible for publishing information on the services provided. For that reason, I do not propose to accept amendment No. 103.

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