Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

The nursing homes support scheme was introduced in October 2009 with a commitment to review its operation after three years. The reason for allowing this period to elapse was to ensure trends and statistics would be available to inform the work. The review of the scheme will look at, among other issues, the ongoing sustainability of the scheme, the relative cost of public versus private provision, the effectiveness of current methods of negotiating price in private nursing homes and setting price in public nursing homes, and the balance of funding between residential and community care.

The terms of reference for the review are being finalised at present. The Department of Health will seek tenders through the public procurement process for the carrying out of the review. This process will take approximately four months. It is also intended to carry out a public consultation over the summer to inform the review. It is anticipated the review itself will take approximately three months to complete. It is expected the review will commence in the last quarter of this year and be completed in early 2013.

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