John Paul Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There are certainly many families in this situation. Although it is no consolation, I deal with similar issues in my CHO area and it is often down to resources in different areas. On the bigger picture issue raised by the Deputy, the Department is engaged in the process of setting up a statutory, stand-alone scheme along the lines, I would expect, of the fair deal scheme that exists for residential nursing home care, which can be slow to access but seems to deliver for the people concerned. In this whole area of home care and home support, given the fact many more people are seeking it and, with the demographics, we know many more will be seeking it, it makes sense to have a statutory scheme. On the bigger picture, I will ask the Minister specifically when he thinks those measures for that scheme will be announced. I will also ask him in regard to CHO 7 and the case raised by the Deputy. I know the Deputy is awaiting a response from the Minister and perhaps something can be done in that case. The bigger picture is that we are going to have a statutory scheme. I fully agree with the Deputy that we should have it as soon as possible.

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