James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Ó Caoláin's opposition to the section and his contention that the review will introduce means testing, that was not said but means testing may be introduced. The current fund, which is very heavily funded, is for long-term care. The Deputy rightly pointed out that most people want to stay at home, yet the funding is not in place in the manner in which it might be. I am sure when his party talks about wealth taxes it would not have any issue with people who are quite well off paying some contribution towards home care or home help, rather than having to pay a contribution for long-term care before they need it.

The advent of the single assessment tool is something which I welcome because it will allow for a uniform approach to assess how the needs of older people can be met, including whether they need long-term care. The current situation has demonstrated that over the past number of years people in certain parts of the country went into long-term care before they needed to. In other parts of the country people cannot access long-term care even though they badly need to. This is due to a lack of uniformity in a single assessment tool and its application, something which we are correcting.

In regard to the comments of Deputy Naughten on averages, the National Treatment Purchase Fund does not purchase from the public sector, rather it purchases from the private sector and some NGOs and voluntary organisations. I will not accept the amendment.

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