Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State may have heard on the radio this morning the really shocking news that the St. Joseph's dementia care facility in Shankill has sent letters to the families of those people with dementia in the facility stating the belief that it may have to close very soon, possibly by the end of the year. This is the biggest and, arguably, the best dementia care facility in the country but it may have to close because of a deficit in funding. This is shocking news for people. Everybody in my area knows somebody with a family member in the facility. A member of my extended family suffered from dementia and she spent her final years there. The staff were wonderful and the care was really amazing.

One of the features of St. Joseph's is that it caters for high-dependency dementia sufferers. It was indicated to me by families of people using the service earlier in the summer that there was a problem. I tabled a parliamentary question at the time expressing concern about the funding deficit and the implications it could have for St. Joseph's but I was informed, in a fairly cold response, that the HSE was discharging its funding responsibilities under the fair deal scheme, which is more properly known as the nursing home support scheme. The problem is that this does not provide sufficient funds for high-dependency sufferers. The extra cost of providing care for high-dependency sufferers of dementia has been covered by St. Joseph's, leading to a deficit of €7 million building up to 2012. St. Joseph's has managed to cover the latter up to now. It is facing an ongoing deficit for this year of €1.2 million and it simply cannot cover it any more. This deficit exists because the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, the HSE and, ultimately, the Government will not provide the additional necessary funds for high-dependency dementia sufferers.

Ms Emma Belmaine, the chief executive of the facility, put it very well when she explained the cruel injustice of this for families and dementia sufferers. It is difficult enough for family members to deal with high-dependency dementia sufferers without them being treated in this way. She states:

Decision makers and funders need to understand that people living with a diagnosis of dementia cannot be discriminated against and are entitled to the same spectrum of care as those with a different terminal illness. Funding for dementia care also needs to be increased significantly and allocated fairly, not based on numbers in beds but on the needs of people. It should not matter whether the person is receiving that specialist dementia care in a HSE facility, a private nursing home or an independent not-for-profit facility such as St. Joseph's.

I ask the Government, as a matter of urgency, to cover the deficit and ensure the biggest and best care facility for dementia sufferers in this country does not close, causing great hardship for dementia sufferers and their families.

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