Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach mentioned his discussions with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg on the issue of migration. One of the challenges that has raised its head in Ireland just recently is the issue of nursing homes. The Taoiseach may not be aware of this, but currently there is a funding crisis in respect of nursing homes, which is leading to nursing homes being closed, which in turn is leading to older people being evicted from their nursing homes. That is heartbreaking because these are the people who went through the disaster of the Covid crisis and who built the country during the course of their lives, and now, in their old age, in dementia, in Alzheimer's, they are forced to leave locations with which they are familiar, where they have friends and great support, etc.

One of the significant changes that has happened within the Department of Health is to the rules as to whether nursing homes can become locations to house refugees and asylum seekers. That change has been made just in recent times. Given that the ESRI states that we need 40,000 nursing home places, that we have only half that, that we are losing nursing homes places at a significant rate at the moment, that is, we are in reverse in respect of provision of nursing home places, is it not a serious mistake to lift the prohibition on the provision of nursing homes for accommodation for asylum seekers? Many of these homes are private. The provision of accommodation for asylum seekers is far less costly, far fewer staff are needed, etc. The business model may be more attractive for those nursing home owners to provide that accommodation and, therefore, we may lose valuable nursing home accommodation.

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