Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We may very well still be sitting on the 26 July but if we have adjourned in the meantime we must come back. We will certainly be demanding that because it is part of what is contained in the amendment we are agreeing this evening.

I thank my Fianna Fáil colleagues for their outstanding contributions also, in case they thought I was forgetting about them. We have taken a first step today. I am not happy that we are waiting for six months to elapse. We are talking about elderly people and six months is a very long time when one is old or ill.

I wish the Minister of State well in her consultation process. Fianna Fáil will be making a contribution to it and I hope it gets underway as quickly as possible because time is something the elderly do not have in abundance. I am reassured, from what I have heard this evening from the Minister of State and the Minister that the Government is fully committed to introducing a full statutory scheme for home care and that they are in the process of putting that in place without delay. On that basis, and thanking people for the support for the Bill, we are prepared to accept the Government amendment.

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