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

-----when it comes to the way it is being assessed. That legislation is overdue but we expect the heads to be at Cabinet in June, and we will see that through.

The Deputy also asked about the difference in cost between public and private nursing homes. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, is doing an analysis of that at the moment. It is important to bear in mind that we are not necessarily comparing like with like when one compares a public nursing home or community hospital with a private nursing home. Very often the public nursing home takes in a different profile of resident - often those who have much greater needs and need much greater care and attention. Given their acuity and need for more care, this requires more staff and more cost comes with that. It is important to compare like with like and comparing public to private nursing homes is like comparing private and public hospitals. It is not the same thing. Those with the highest and most expensive care needs are the people who tend to be in the public facilities.

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