Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The facts are that in County Galway and other counties, people who wanted to go to a nursing home close to their family or that their family would be able to visit were not given the option for convalescent beds. None of us are saying that people should be paying two prices in one and one price on the other. If the Department was using a bit of common sense it would say that people could go wherever is nearest to them, providing that they are in line with the other nursing homes in the county. There is a workable solution. It looks very unfair when a tender document says that a nursing home might be 31 km from University Hospital Galway and be excluded because it was not built inside this alleged zone.

The HSE has to think of families or elderly people who might have an elderly partner at home that might not have a way of travelling to these places. County Galway is the second biggest county in Ireland. There are other counties affected, it is not just confined to County Galway. The HSE needs to use some common sense. This is not a money saving exercise. If one is in and around Galway city a nursing home will probably be more expensive than out in the rural parts of County Galway. These people want the opportunity. Some elderly people are very aggrieved about this. Every Deputy gets phone calls, and constituents will say that they are not being allowed to go to a particular nursing home near their family and their families will not be able to visit.

We should have a bit of consideration and a bit of common sense. There are people in the HSE who go off on tangents of their own and decide to do things without telling the Minister, but at times the reigns must be pulled in. We should think of these elderly people who are trying to the best they can. They are not being awkward. What they want is a fair and level playing field, as do the nursing home providers.

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