Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The budget for the NHSS in 2015 is €948.8 million and that includes €10 million allocated specifically for the initiative related to delayed discharges. That increase of €10 million will allow for the provision of an additional 300 long-stay care places under the national homes support scheme. That has reduced the waiting period for allocation under the fair deal scheme from 17 weeks to 11 weeks. As the Deputy is aware, last year there was a further €5 million allocated for an initiative to improve access for appropriate care for older people. Nobody on this side of the House is suggesting, and this is now the Deputy's mantra, that the Government made a deliberate decision to do down elderly people. That is beneath the Deputy. It is a disgraceful comment from him.

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