Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

The allocation and adequacy of resources is ultimately a matter for the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, and the Government. Notwithstanding that, the Minister is satisfied that sufficient provision has been made to ensure that the resources allocated under the scheme, and their adequacy, are constantly monitored.

Under section 31 of the Health Act 2004, the HSE must prepare and submit a service plan and the Minister will stipulate that this plan must indicate the numbers of people provided with support under the scheme. In addition, the HSE must also include in its annual report any information which may be specified by the Minister for Health and Children under section 37 of the 2004 Act. For the purposes of the scheme, a dedicated subhead, B16, has been established within Vote 40. This subhead will be subject to careful monitoring and my Department has already agreed a set of reporting requirements in this regard.

On the care needs, we do not accept that the benchmark for dependency will be moved upwards, particularly because it will be subject to a multidisciplinary panel of professionals and their codes of ethics. This will equalise access for both public and private patients because, as must be acknowledged, the majority of provision in nursing homes is in the private sector. By law, the care needs assessment, which is holistic in nature, must take family, social and community circumstances into account.

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