Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I am not privy to how the figure was compiled but I assume some assistance was given through the HSE but I again point out that almost 500 older people are in acute hospital beds awaiting approval for access to nursing home beds at this time. In other words, there is a serious hold-up in the freeing up of very important acute hospital beds because of this debacle. What steps are being taken by the Department in order to ensure that those people gain access to nursing home beds under the fair deal scheme and that those beds are freed up to cater to the many others who need them?

Will the Minister of State clarify the figure of 4,604 referred to as in processing? Was that of 31 March? Will the Minister of State clarify the detail of the response and would the Minister of State agree that the figure is staggering? If the €100 million is to be redeployed from another source, it will not be adequate to cater for the remainder of 2011. What further funding is being sought now for the fair deal scheme?

See this speech in context