Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the discrimination that is occurring in the moneys being allocated for private nursing homes compared with public nursing homes. As the Minister of State is aware, we have a situation in Cork where a nursing home with 73 beds has decided to withdraw from the fair deal scheme. It is interesting to go through the figures on this. The average cost of a public nursing home bed per week is €1,823. The average cost of a private nursing home bed is €1,079 per week, so the difference is €744. One of the figures I have come up with is that in County Laois, the average cost of a public nursing home bed is €2,585 per week whereas a private nursing home is only getting €1,039 per week, a gap of €1,546. In three counties, namely, Laois; Longford; and Westmeath, the amount paid for a public bed in a public nursing home is double what is allowed under the fair deal scheme to a private nursing home. In Cork the average cost per week is €1,734 for a public nursing home and for a private nursing home it is €1,073, a gap of €661.

What is frightening is that in the last round of adjustments, percentage-wise as regards the increases allowed, in Cork the public nursing homes were allowed a 10.4% increase and the private nursing homes were allowed a 2.7% increase. This cannot continue. Private nursing homes cannot continue in the current way that fees are calculated. It is also important to realise that a private nursing home has additional costs that a public nursing home does not have. For instance, there is public liability insurance, which on average costs well over €50,000 to €60,000 per nursing home. They also have to pay commercial rates to the local authority, which a public nursing home does not have to pay. Private nursing homes have to calculate the cost of building into what can be collected in fees as well. Private nursing homes have a huge amount of additional costs that are not there for the public nursing homes and we are finding that nursing homes are going out of business. A number of smaller nursing homes closed last year and this trend will continue with the present structure. The average increase allowed recently for public nursing homes across the country was an 8.9% increase in fees, whereas in the private sector the average was 3.1%.

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