Thomas Pringle (Donegal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for her response. I wonder about her figures on the length of stay of those in nursing homes. ALONE's figures are that 35.4% of those in long-stay beds have low to medium care requirements, which is a huge proportion of those in nursing homes. This is a huge cost to the State. They could be cared for at home and, in many cases, would wish to be cared for at home. It seems that there has been a huge growth since 2004 in the number of low dependency residents in nursing homes. This is bad public policy and bad for the residents themselves.

It is vitally important that home care would be supported more fully. As the Minister of State stated, more than 4%, or nearly twice the national average, of people in my county of Donegal are cared for at home. Families need the additional support to ensure they can do this. It is also far more cost effective than the nursing home support scheme. It is therefore vitally important that we would have this scheme.

I welcome the fact that the consultation will start in May but I press on the Minister of State that it should not be a consultation to replace what is already in place in terms of home help hours and home care packages.

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