John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are an unusual number of community care homes in counties Kilkenny and Carlow that offer a completely different type of service to the commercial nursing home. All of them are under financial pressure and deal with a deficit at the end of every year. Will the Minister examine the services being provided for people in their own community through these community home care settings and ensure they get the appropriate funding to allow them to deal with the deficit and to plan their services for the coming year? Will he fund an analysis of the value of the services they give in order that the Government can factor in the possibility of expanding the services and improving them?

Fulfilling the HIQA regulations is a serious difficulty because it is about money coming from voluntary sources. Will the Minister set aside a fund that can be drawn on to fulfil the HIQA regulations so they do not impact on the services?

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