Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I largely agree with the Deputy. I had a high-level meeting with the HSE on exactly this matter in the past few days. There are still some issues related to Covid. One point the HSE raised with me was that about half the nursing homes have Covid outbreaks. We have a protocol in place whereby one must wait 28 days, two full cycles of Covid, before anyone can be discharged. As the Deputy rightly said, there are pressures on discharges. We funded an extra 2.7 million home care hours for last year, which have been carried forward into this year. However, the issue at the moment is not funding but making sure there are people who can deliver the services.

The Deputy is absolutely correct about discharges, more community beds and how we need the nursing homes to be free of Covid in order that people can be discharged. Then there is the issue of home care packages. The Minister of State, Deputy Butler, has done huge work on reducing waiting lists for those looking for home care packages. As the Deputy says, this is end to end, from prevention, GPs, community services and frailty intervention and community intervention teams to the availability of multiple pathways in emergency departments, diagnostics, including acute diagnostics and GP access to diagnostics, acute beds and discharge options.

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