Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I have said, the scheme I was speaking about will run through 2024 and allows eligible voluntary and private nursing homes to apply for up to €25,000 from a fund of €10 million to support structural works relating to fire safety and infection prevention. The first payments were made on 28 March, when a total of €1.86 million was paid to 82 nursing homes. That has been very welcome. I take on board the point the Deputy is making. The challenge for me is that the Department of Health is obliged to deliver policies underpinned by the principle of equity of access to related services or supports. We cannot decide to just support the voluntary sector as against the private sector. There is also a large number of small family-run community-based nursing homes.

Further to the Deputy's query, I had a meeting yesterday with officials in the Department and we are looking at ways to further support the voluntary and smaller nursing home sector, maybe in relation to buildings that are built with multiples of years.

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