Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

On face value, this initiative is welcome. I understand it was first announced in last year's budget. Like the Fianna Fáil spokesperson, I am interested in hearing from the Minister on what basis it was reviewed given it was only recently sanctioned by the EU.

There are many issues arising regarding nursing homes. There is no doubt that we need additional nursing homes. We all know from our constituency work that earlier this year and last year, it was taking 18 to 24 weeks to access beds under the fair deal scheme. We also witnessed the onslaught on public nursing homes, including in my own constituency, many of which are old institutions and find it very difficult to meet the Health Information and Quality Authority standards. There are huge delays, including in relation to St. Theresa's hospital in Clogheen in my constituency. Some €250,000 has been voluntarily raised for a hospice but the Department of Health has not appointed architects to design and build it. There is huge bureaucracy in this area.

The Government is farming out health service provision in order to lessen the number of people on trolleys. While I welcome any initiative that will assist in reducing the number of people on trolleys, we must be careful we do not limit provision in that regard to private developers of nursing homes and retirement villages who are not experienced in the area of nursing home management and so on. These privately built facilities do not provide the same level of care provided by district hospitals in terms of the training and supports available therein. While this initiative is, as I said, welcome, there are many aspects of it that have to be frowned on. The experience to date in respect of large nursing homes and the retirement villages attached to them is that they are not very good at their job.

I agree with Deputy Naughten that it is very hard to get elderly people in Ireland to sell their homes. Home ownership is systemic in Ireland. While a person's house may not be wonderful, it is his or her home and castle. This is a particular issue in the voluntary sector. I am disappointed that there is no aspect of this initiative which deals with voluntary groups as they have a proven track record in this area because they are not-for-profit and are of the people and the communities. They have done great work in this area. It is unfair that they are excluded from this initiative because they are the ones who often have no problem acquiring sites or getting planning permission. While they are developers in their own right, they are volunteers operating on a not-for-profit basis in the provision of rest homes and retirement homes and catering for people deemed not to be in need of hospitalisation but capable of living in these facilities with the help of a visiting nurse and so on. There is room for extension of this scheme to the voluntary sector. It has a track record in this area and it can and will deliver projects within 15 to 20 months. We should not be waiting for private developers to decide whether they will build.

The Minister mentioned that private developers have welcomed this scheme, for which they lobbied. I note he also said that it commends itself to the House rather than that he commends it to the House.

Perhaps it was just phraseology and the Minister did not mean anything by what he said. However, he indicated that it commends itself to the House rather than that he commends it to the House. There is a need for this measure. It must be properly managed and policed. I would like it to be expanded into the voluntary sector - the not-for-profit sector - in order that the latter might build a facility because it would want to keep people in the community, it would want them to feel safe in their own homes and it would want there to be a community feel to it, rather than it being a big nursing home with an extended holiday village. While I welcome this measure, it needs careful examination, careful observation when it proceeds and a review mechanism after six, eight or nine months to monitor how it working. Perhaps the management of this could be transferred to the voluntary sector where there is no element of greed involved and where those who work in the sector do so to serve the community and our older and vulnerable people.

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