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

I fully accept the Minister of State's commitment to this area, and that of the Government, but there now is a problem. In the Cork area, for example, the amount paid for public nursing home beds is one of the lowest in the country. I fully accept that. However, the increase allowed in Cork for public nursing home beds was 10.4%, whereas the increase for private nursing homes was 2.7%. The Minister of State and I both know that costs have increased substantially as regards wages, salaries and insurance. All those costs have gone up substantially, certainly by more than 2.7%. I am worried about the Cork area. As I said, the issue that has come to a head concerns getting people out of Cork University Hospital where, in many cases, we cannot now get beds. We have had five or six ongoing cases at the hospital over the past three to four months where we physically could not get a facility to take a person who no longer needed hospital care but did need nursing home care. This really needs to be looked at.

I am now very concerned that one of the facilities, which has 73 beds, has stated it is withdrawing from the fair deal scheme. A number of other facilities are also considering their position. This issue needs to be looked at. An average increase of 2.7% in Cork will not deal with the increased costs that have occurred over the past 12 to 18 months. I ask the Minister of State to sit down with the group that adjudicates on increases to review this issue, with a view to getting people out of hospital at a faster pace than currently.

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