Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I am disappointed that the Minister, Deputy Reilly, is not here to take this matter on the Adjournment. There is now serious confusion over what is happening with the fair deal scheme and it is the Minister's job to clear up that confusion and tell us, and more important, worried older people and their families how this is going to be resolved.

Last Wednesday, 18 May, it emerged in the media that the HSE had informed hospitals that funding allocated for the fair deal scheme in 2011 was running out even though we are only in the fifth month of the year. Naturally, these reports spread huge concern among older people and their families, including people already availing of the fair deal scheme and those who had applied or would be applying for it. Age Action reported that it was inundated with phone calls from concerned older people, some of them in tears.

On Friday evening we had the statement from Minister, Deputy Reilly, in which he claimed that €100 million in funding for fair deal was used for what he described as ancillary services, including therapies and drugs. The Minister was quoted as saying there was "tremendous confusion"between the HSE and his Department. He spoke of "some very strange figures coming through from various parts of the HSE." Then, quite amazingly, he said that through "confused messaging" money that belonged to one subhead has been spent on other subheads. We are talking about tens of millions of euros in public money. For "confused messaging" to exist about its allocation and spending is totally unacceptable. There was a sigh of relief when the Minister said that the fair deal scheme would recommence approving applications. That relief has been short-lived. I contacted the HSE only to be told that applications are not in fact being processed. I was told that the computer system for processing them has been shut down. In fact, the term used was that "the computer access has been disabled", which is shocking.

The HSE was reported today on the Irish Health website as stating that it has not yet recommenced approving applications for the fair deal scheme as it is still seeking clarity on the funding issue from the Department of Health and Children. The HSE also stated that it was not the case that money was diverted away from where it should have been spent, as claimed by the Minister. So, now we have the Minister and the HSE contradicting each other on this vital matter of the care of older people. Are we drifting, with our eyes wide open, into yet another crisis? When will the approval of applications re-commence? Staff in the various nursing homes support units throughout the country are denied access through the computer system.

The pressure on the fair deal scheme in the past year has already led to a situation where there are increasing numbers of delayed discharges of older people from hospitals, that is, older people are being kept in hospital beds longer than medically necessary because there are no nursing home places for them to go to, or now, as it seems, no fair deal scheme in operation to support them. The longer this situation drags on the worse the bed shortage in our already over-stretched hospitals will become. We have some 1,500 public hospital beds closed and, despite their election promises, there is no sign of the new coalition Government opening any of them.

We need absolute clarity and we need it now. We need the funding confusion cleared up and the funding restored. We need applications to be approved and older people to have some sense of security. We need all available beds accessible to those already cleared to occupy them.

These are real people. Tonight, in my home town of Monaghan an 89 year old lady remains in her flat, dependent on a limited home-care package and the continuing 24/7 care of her loving family. She was approved for fair deal access to a bed vacancy in a local state-of-the-art nursing home that became available yesterday. However, with no fair deal final processing she is unable to take up the offer at this time. That is outrageous. There are many other older people like the lady I refer to.

I appeal to the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to impress on the Minister to have the blockade of the computer system lifted and the process recommenced immediately.

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