Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Deputies. It has been a long, detailed and good session and we have touched on many of the issues that have been raised. We have discussed our extraordinary healthcare professionals on the clinical side, the administrative side and the support side in the HSE, the Department and right across the system. There has been wide and deep recognition of the role everybody has played.

I understand that the Vote is being accepted and if that is the case, I want to thank the House for that and for the recognition that this money is essential and has been put to good use by our healthcare professionals and workers in the national response. I repeat that I will be back seeking further support from the House because this additional €2 billion is for measures that have been agreed by the Government to date and it is not a full-year Estimate. The reality is that as we continue to pay for costs directly related to Covid-19 and as we figure out the resumption of non-Covid-19 services, which are so important, we will think hard and hopefully we will be clever and come up with good ideas but it will cost money, and probably a reasonable chunk of money.

I want to finish with some good news. One of the items in the Estimate and that was part of the Covid-19 response was the temporary assistance payment scheme for the nursing homes. The original scheme, which was for three months, runs out today. The nursing homes and the residents and their families are quite understandably concerned about that. Nursing homes, like many of our essential health and social care services, are facing a range of challenges in the wake of Covid-19 and they all need to do things differently. Great strides have been made, including in the further suppression of the virus in the community. We must continue to provide support to nursing homes and to contribute towards their continued planning, preparedness and response to Covid-19. I am pleased to announce, therefore, that following a review, I will be extending the temporary assistance payment scheme for a final three months. The scheme will continue to be open for nursing homes for the months of July, August and September. It is an important contribution to supporting the sector in its ongoing preparedness for managing and mitigating the impacts of Covid-19, as well as supporting and protecting residents, which is at the core of everything they need to be doing. The extension of the scheme allows these preparedness and management measures to continue to roll out and also provides certainty on the conclusion of the temporary scheme. I must also recognise that significant systems and structures to facilitate the support of private and voluntary nursing homes have been put in place and have developed considerably in recent months. These non-financial supports come in the form of PPE supplies, temporary accommodation for nursing home staff and through the HSE's crisis response teams, including through the deployment of HSE staff.

A considerable amount of support, in the form of telephone support, infection prevention and control support and public health support, is being provided to the nursing homes in parallel to the scheme that was put in place. The extension of the scheme also recognises that these other supports have been deployed as well. The extended scheme, therefore, will operate with some amendments. The new standard assistance monthly payment rates will be €600 per resident per month up to 40 residents, €300 per resident per month up to 80 residents, and €150 per month per resident thereafter, to an overall ceiling of €60,000 per month. The outbreak assistance payment component of the scheme will also continue.

The HSE continues to provide significant supplies of PPE to nursing homes, with well over €20 million worth of PPE provided to date. This must be recognised in the extension of the scheme. It no longer makes sense to have in place two separate funding supports for PPE. Therefore, for the remaining life of the scheme, the HSE will continue to provide PPE to nursing homes and the scheme will no longer need to cover this cost. The scheme administration is also being simplified with the removal of the form A process. This process made sense at the commencement of the scheme to ensure early flow of funding. However, it has served its primary purpose and may now be counterproductive to good administration and user-friendliness on behalf of the nursing homes, so we are discontinuing it. A small number of other amendments are being made, and I will announce details of this later.

I wanted to finish on some good news, some recognition of the need to continue to support primarily the residents of our nursing homes but also the amazing staff, who have worked so hard over the past few months. I thank the House again for supporting the Vote.

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