Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It will not. There are two separate issues. As the Minister of State has admitted, there are 788 people fit to be discharged from hospital tonight and there is a cost to the health service of approximately €700,000 every night. The €25 million must be ring-fenced, and it could be the most radical reform in our health service during the term of the Government if this process is implemented properly. The difficulty is that such action will only deal with approximately one quarter of people on the waiting list for the fair deal nursing home scheme. We need additional money put into the scheme for the 1,500 other people; this should be the €23 million taken from the scheme last year. I can tell the Minister of State where to get the money. If the Government rolls out the national stroke programme and removes the seven telemedicine stroke machines that are currently in a warehouse in the Minister of State's home county of Cork, it would save the health service €55 million per year. Based on the ESRI report, it is estimated that the additional impact of the complete roll-out of the national stroke programme would be to reduce nursing home admissions, saving €23 million per annum. That is the same amount of money taken from the system last year. I urge the Minister of State to implement the stroke programme, save the money and ensure these older people have access to nursing home beds.

See this speech in context