Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. The Government is conscious of the financial challenges faced by the nursing home sector and has acted accordingly. The cost of residential care to the State was €1.4 billion last year. We received approximately €350 million back from people who avail of the fair deal support mechanism. As of today, there are 22,613 people living in nursing homes receiving support under fair deal. The full cost is €9.45 billion. Private nursing homes received nearly 70% of this funding under their agreements made independently with the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

I am conscious that small and voluntary nursing homes are facing challenges at the moment. In November, I announced the €10 million temporary inflation payments scheme to alleviate the pressures faced by nursing homes as a result of increasing energy prices. Private and voluntary nursing homes can claim 75% of year-on-year cost increases up to a maximum payment of €5,250 per month. I backdated this to 1 July. Therefore, a nursing home can claim in total up to €31,500 from 1 July of this year to 31 December. We will keep it under review.

More than €145 million has been claimed by nursing homes under the temporary assistance payment scheme, TAPS, since it was introduced in 2020. I have also continued this scheme for any nursing home that currently has an outbreak of Covid-19 and needs those extra financial supports to deal with it. Last month, for example, 72 nursing homes had an open outbreak of Covid-19.

Substantial other supports have been provided. Since April 2020, the State has been providing free personal protective equipment, PPE, and free oxygen to the private and voluntary nursing home sector. The estimated cost is €72 million to date. This year's cost was €23 million in those types of supports.

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