Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Burke outlined, nursing home care and care homes will become a more considerable issue politically and socially in the years to come, undoubtedly because of our growing and ageing population. The Deputy outlined that there are challenges in this regard. Undoubtedly, there are but it is important that we acknowledge that it is good that people are living longer. What is important is ensuring that if we live longer, we live a life of good quality, be it at home or in a nursing home.

The pandemic highlighted the fact that there were significant issues in some homes, including governance issues and failings, but it should be acknowledged that the standard of care in many homes is very high. However, we have a system that operates on an ad hocbasis. There is a mixture of community, private and HSE-led services in a sector that we need to consider as public. The State needs to regard the sector as one in which a minimum standard of care is provided. It needs to be responsible for that. It should outsource less and allow others to take less responsibility, as is the case in education and health services, generally, and in many other public services. We need to ensure a minimum standard. This is essential. Forthcoming legislation needs to address this.

The three-year cap is sensible and logical. The circumstances in which people can find themselves when engaging with the fair deal scheme can be extremely challenging so we need to be as fair as possible to them. I welcome the changes in this regard.

There are two other areas we need to address. To flag an issue, I have come across people entering the fair deal scheme or seeking a nursing home bed who have come from mental health facilities and through the mental health system. There is a challenge in this regard in respect of getting transition funding cleared. It is sometimes the case that, by the time the transition funding is cleared, a bed can be gone, meaning the family in question or the nurse helping them has to start the work again. We need to make the system a little more transparent and effective in this regard.

The vast majority of people want to be cared for at home for as long as possible. It is what patients, citizens and families want. It is also probably better medically. We need a statutory home care set-up. We need to think about legislation underpinning this. At the heart of this are the home helps. We need to ensure they are well paid and that their employment supports are secure. We need to have more of them because the waiting lists are far too long.

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