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

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about something tangentially connected to the issue of nursing home charges. The overcharging of people has been discussed as a historical issue, but I came across a case this week of something that I suspect is much more widespread. I refer to a couple I met who are on the fair deal scheme and both of whom are in receipt of the State pension. The wife is in a nursing home and is supposed to give over 80% of her income. These people do not have any more than that. The nursing home is imposing significant additional charges, for example, €40 for physiotherapy, €3 per day for activities and €25 per hour for a chaperone to take the woman, who is suffering with Alzheimer's disease, to the physio. She could not go to the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital because her husband could not afford to pay for a taxi.

It was going to cost approximately €80. I repeat this is somebody 80% of whose pension is already going to the nursing home under the fair deal scheme and her husband has been left with the State pension. He has to buy her clothes and all sorts. He does not have the money. After a few months in the nursing home the bill has increased to €3,000. He simply does not have it. This is an unacceptable situation. The nursing home is now putting pressure on him to hand over her social welfare card so it can get her money to pay the bill. If this is happening on a widespread basis, it is absolutely shocking and something needs to be done. Otherwise what we thought we were dealing with as an historical wrong is actually persisting and putting elderly, vulnerable and unwell people in an absolutely outrageous situation.

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