Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is not telling the truth to the public concerned. These are very important centres in the communities. I know that questions were asked last week by the Sunday Business Postand others. I have named 21 long-stay facilities. Can the Taoiseach answer a simple question? Have plans been submitted in respect of each one of those 21 hospitals, including Castletownbere, Bandon, Bantry, Peamount, Leopardstown? Has funding been matched to the plans that have been submitted? It is simple, and no-one could give the answer at the weekend. It is all fudged and "discussions going on" and this, that and the other. HIQA had to dismiss any suggestion that there was an amnesty, which the Minister of State had said at the time. The Minister of State herself, to be fair, dealt with this issue in a written reply 12 months ago and said the money was not going to be provided - "Bearing in mind their age and structure, public nursing homes face real challenges and require investment in excess of the funding that will be available in the short to medium term." That was January 2014. Move to November 2014, and we have the Minister of State saying "my Department and the HSE are working to establish the options that may be available in this regard and how we can ensure that older people continue to be looked after." That is the kind of meaningless stuff one gets when no-one has an answer to the problem. We are getting more of it today, with respect to the Taoiseach.

I think the people in those communities, the staff and the communities that depend on the long-stay beds would like to know a very basic answer. Is it policy to upgrade these units? Is the money going to be provided? It has not actually been provided in this year's Estimates. Some €7.3 million has been provided for the upgrade of the nursing homes, while €300 million was asked for by the Director General of the HSE, Mr. Tony O'Brien. He is saying that is what it will take. There has been no publication of a three- or four-year plan, and it has been known for five years that July 2015 was to be the date. There is no public plan that we are going to do X, Y and Z over the next three years in terms of the long-stay beds in these institutions. I think it is a legitimate question - what is really going on behind the scenes?

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