Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)

I thank the Labour Party for bringing forward this very important motion today. I am sure there is not one person in the Dáil who saw the documentary who was not disgusted by the way our elderly were being treated. If big businesses are treating our elderly in such a terrible way, we must ensure we do all we can so that this does not continue.

That said, we cannot tar everybody with the one brush because there are some great nursing homes. We must make sure the bad are weeded out but the good are secured and looked after. I meet Tadhg Daly from Nursing Homes Ireland fairly often and we discuss the lack of funding. I have gone to a lot of nursing homes. They tell me straight that there is a massive lack of funding.

We all know the great community hospitals that are out there that are funded to within an inch of their lives. If HIQA walks in the door and improvements have to be made, they are funded by the State. The situation with nursing homes is that if HIQA walks in the door and says improvements must be made, the funding must come out of their coffers. I am very seriously concerned because while nursing home staff and management are doing everything they can to make sure everything is right, it is impossible to do that if the budget is tightened beyond belief. That is the situation here and the Government have let things slip.

I also have very serious concerns about care of the elderly going forward as the elderly population is rising. I know a lot of the hospitals in my constituency, and I never heard of an extension being proposed for any one of them. When I ring to inquire about bringing in a patient I am told, for example, that 15 or 20 people are on the waiting list and the person does not have a hope of getting in there. They might pass away before they get the chance.

One stunning hospital we have is in Schull. I would be delighted if the Minister were to get a chance to come and see it because it is a perfect example of what a community hospital should be. In fairness, there are other similar places throughout the country. The hospital has 21 beds. As far as I know, there were 21 beds there 100 years ago. Something has got to change. Somebody must have the vision to say the hospital in Schull and in other places need an extension of 25 or 30 beds, so that people will have a home if they need it. That is a very big issue for me.

I also talk about Aperee Living nursing home, which had serious issues some two years ago. We lost the facility in Belgooley. At that time, I said in the Dáil that the nursing home in Belgooley should be taken over by the State because there were enough people in need of a nursing home. One can imagine old people losing their nursing home and having the living daylights frightened out of them, yet nobody stepped in. The nursing home was let go. It was the same with Aperee Living in Bantry and the nursing homes in Conna in Fermoy and in the Mallow area. They all went into liquidation. People are living in fear that they are going to lose their home, which is basically what can happen. The State must have a mechanism to step in, as outlined in the motion, and to take over the running of a nursing home if it is badly run or someone has been found guilty of serious infringements. That is the road we must travel. It did not happen in Belgooley and the patients were herded out like cattle.

They were shoved everywhere and anywhere. There was no respect shown. They were told a nursing home would be found and that if they did not take it, they should be taken home. That is not good enough. We need to wake up and understand how to respect our elderly. If the State had stepped in and put the money into that nursing home that it needed, and that the owners did not seem to have or did not want to invest - I did not know what was going on there - it could have taken up to 80 people. It could have taken pressure off nursing homes in west Cork.

Dementia units are also badly needed. We need to invest and ensure there are more carers and that there is not a means tested for carers. We need to invest in home help. However, the biggest problem I have with home help, which keeps people at home - we do not need people going into nursing homes every day of the week - is many of the older home helps are walking away. They were fantastic and mainly women. The problem is they have to carry around tablets and computers to do their job. That is not what they should be doing. They should be in the house looking after the patient. Unfortunately, it has gone to another level which they might not be capable of reaching but they certainly were the world’s best at looking after the elderly person in the home. Unfortunately, I am hearing of private companies being brought in because staff cannot be found as they are walking away. They were willing to stay had they been allowed to work rather than going home to spend an hour tapping on a tablet or on a computer, sorting things out. Their work was on the ground; delivering for and looking after people. That is the area the Minister of State needs to return to as well as carers and the means tests. They are important areas.

The recent increase in the means test for carers is a positive step. It is imperative that the means test is completely abolished to better support families to care for their elderly parents at home. Additionally, there is a critical need to expand the availability of home help services. One of the most pressing issues is the insufficient provision of home help for individuals transitioning from hospital care. This shortage often results in elderly patients being placed in nursing homes. By significantly increasing home help services, we can reduce the necessity for sending our elderly population to nursing homes, thereby allowing them to remain in the comfort of their own homes.

Last week in the Dáil, we in Independent Ireland brought forward a motion with 23 points on how to fix the housing crisis. While making my contribution on it, I showed those in the Chamber a picture of Jennifer Marley who is 88 years of age. She was becoming homeless. She had no home. Her next move, unfortunately, was to a nursing home. She did not need a nursing home as she lived independently. There is no social housing in west Cork. I have been on choice-based lettings, CBL, for the past ten weeks and I believe once in ten weeks a couple of houses came up in west Cork. That is an astonishing situation west Cork finds itself in. There are no council houses available. A local housing body - the Government needs to invest money in housing bodies - that had received money from the State and had built a number of houses, thankfully, stepped in and looked after that lovely lady, and deservedly so. The problem is I am in the same situation this week. I am holding up another picture of a 77-year-old man, Gus Dempsey, who asked me to do this. He is homeless as of today. His house burned down six months ago. A neighbour gave him a house to move into but he is now in a situation where he has no home tonight. He does not know if he will have to sleep on the street. His neighbour was brilliant and kind but told him his family was coming home and he had to leave by a certain date. The man is in a desperate situation. Will he end up in a nursing home? This is the crisis we have in this country. Our elderly people are being abused one way or another. We have completely taken our eye off the ball in respect of their future and what will happen in this country.

If these people become homeless, will they be rammed into a nursing home when they do not need to be in one? They need a home they can call their own. It is a simple thing. I thank all the housing bodies. I am involved in two of them and we have approximately 20 to 25 people housed in 16 houses in Schull and Goleen. They are absolutely thrilled. They have all the services they need at their door. The medical centre is right beside them. We opened 12 of these houses recently. This is a fantastic service and we need to spend more time looking at that.

The future is bleak for a person who is elderly. It is bleak right now but what will it be like in ten years’ time? There is no planning here and I said that to the Minister of State. I have not heard of any planning permission from any community hospital or nursing home in the whole of County Cork for an extension of rooms. We need to look at this issue and not have someone like Gus Dempsey at 77 years of age worrying whether he is going to sleep in Ballinspittle on the side of the road, on the street or under a bus shelter. That is a situation we find ourselves in between last week and this week with two different people aged 88 and 77. We resolved the 88 year old's situation and my office is frantically trying to resolve that of the 77-year-old. Any help the Minister of State can give would be greatly appreciated.

We need to look to the future, which is not happening. The fair deal scheme is an unfair deal for farmers in regard to nursing homes. The promises made here over a number of years are being broken. I have two or three pages on the areas of unfairness. If one is leasing land, one is murdered and caught in a system that is part of the assessment.

I know time is tight. I am very passionate about certain areas here. I do not want to tar everyone with the same brush. The community hospitals and nursing homes I know of are running fantastically and are doing great work. It is upsetting for many of them and for their staff to think the finger is pointing at them when it should not be.

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