Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. It is great to get the opportunity to put a little balance on the question. Some 22,500 people a year are supported in Ireland with nursing home care under the Fair Deal. Some 18,000 of those beds are owned by private nursing homes and 4,500 come under the HSE nursing home units which are the old county hospitals, as we all know them.

The HSE will always be the provider of last resort. For a nursing home that would not be in a position to provide, for example, the acute care an older person might need, and this would some of them, not all of them, we must have HSE-run hospitals for older people that at times provide a different level of support, and they have to be staffed accordingly.

At 3.30 p.m. today I will be meeting with the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, which comes under my remit, to discuss supports. This year alone, €41 million extra has been provided to support nursing homes. During the Covid-19 pandemic, €145 million was provided for temporary assistance payments. To date, private nursing homes still receive free personal protective equipment, PPE, and oxygen.

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