Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue. I am taking the debate on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, who is unavailable.

Public residential care units are a significant and crucial part of our services for older people. They provide more than 5,000 long-stay beds, amounting to approximately 20% of the total stock of nursing home beds nationally. The standard of care delivered to residents in these units is generally very good, but we recognise that many of our public units are housed in buildings which are no longer up to modern standards and some are very old indeed. For this reason, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, the Minister of State with responsibility for services for older persons at the Department, recently announced an extensive national programme of investment in public residential units, which will bring them into compliance with national standards by 2021 at the latest.

The plan provides for indicative Exchequer funding of more than €41 million for the counties in the HSE's community health care organisation area one, which include Donegal. A further €38.5 million has been identified for a possible public private partnership, or alternative funding mechanisms in the same area, with details of this to be finalised. The investment will see the provision of two new centres in Donegal, in Ballyshannon and Letterkenny. It will consolidate residential care bed capacity in the county and will provide an additional 25 beds in Ballyshannon. The development of a new 130 bed centre, centrally located in Letterkenny, is intended to ensure that bed capacity in the region, which includes Ramelton, Lifford and Stranorlar, is secured on a sustainable basis.

Given the requirement for additional services to provide for the needs of older people throughout the country, including in Donegal, there will also be an ongoing need for the provision of short-stay beds for rehabilitation, respite, step up and step down, all with a view to keeping older people in their own homes and communities for as long as possible. This is what our senior citizens want in the main.

Over recent years, the HSE has developed and extended community services, focusing in particular on older people who can either be cared for in the community or whose capability can be built up to allow community living. Given the highly developed community services already in place in Donegal, including home care, day care and other short-stay facilities throughout the county, the continuation and expansion of services will be a big part of future service provision in the area. It is in the context of this planning for the coming years that the use and purpose of the buildings in Ramelton, Lifford and Stranorlar will be considered, to ensure that an appropriate service is provided for older people living in their own communities in Donegal.

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