Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

That reinforces the view that there was a great deal of scaremongering when the scheme was being established in 2009 in terms of the number of people who would be forced to sell their homes to fund the scheme. There is no getting away from the fact there will be fewer beds in the system. There is no doubt about that. The number of beds is being reduced continually and the figures exist to prove it. Not only is the fair deal nursing home scheme going to come under additional pressure because of the reduction in bed numbers but also it will have a knock-on effect on acute hospitals and moving people from the acute setting into community nursing homes. Could the Minister of State provide an assurance, while we await the review, that funding will be available for everyone who applies under the nursing home support scheme? When the review is completed, it will probably be published in January or February 2013. Can the Minister of State indicate whether funding will be available in December, for example, for next year because we need certainty in that regard?

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