Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The situation is out of control. I watched the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, with Deputy Denis Naughten on television recently and the answers given were not answers. I watched the Minister of State when she was in opposition and she must know the hardship and anguish caused to families who must make a decision after trying their best to care for their families at home for as long as they can. When people make the decision to go into the fair deal scheme, they must wait up to 16 weeks to get a placement. I want to kill the myth that there is no capacity in nursing homes, as portrayed in the television programme by the Minister of State and the Minister. It is untrue. In south Tipperary, 12 beds are taken up by patients who are not fit to go home. The families are traumatised because they cannot take them home and they are waiting for nursing homes to go to. The patients are in long-stay beds, which is having a major knock-on effect on hospitals throughout the country. There is one hospital in Clonmel and there are stepdown facilities in Carrick-on-Suir, Clogheen and Cashel.

I ask the Minister of State to take her head out of the sand and deal with the issue. Talking about capping in this issue is the cruellest word she can use. People are at the end of their lives, having given service to the State and paid their taxes, as have their families, while the Minister of State talks about capping the funding. It is totally insensitive and it is a different Minister of State from the person I saw in opposition for four years. The Rottweiler was over here but now she reads out speeches prepared by the HSE and the Department of Health. The Minister of State should hang her head in shame because of the crisis, the trauma caused and the waste and occupancy of beds being held up for so long. I beg the Minister of State to do something. We are in the winter months and hospitals will get busy. Families are traumatised, having made the decision to care for the family properly. The system is cruel, ineffective and inept in sorting out the problem. It is another crisis and it is a fine mess the Government has created.

It was a good scheme set up by a previous Government but let us imagine using the term capping in this context. The Minister of State can throw her cap at it or throw her hat at it. She should have some dignity and, if she cannot sort it out, she should resign as Deputy RóiinShortall did.

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