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

The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, and the Minister, Deputy Harris, announced the public consultation on a statutory home care scheme last Thursday. I do not have any objection to the date being extended, as August is a difficult time for many people to prepare submissions and get them in, so I will raise the issue with the Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, and see if that is possible.

Any scheme will have financial implications. The fair deal scheme costs about €1 billion a year. I do not know how much a home care scheme would cost but we would need to know how the scheme would be designed and its cost before we could proceed with a money message.

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