Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Before we move on to the Legal Services Regulation Bill 2011, I call on the Minister for Health to make a statement.

James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for providing me with this opportunity to update the House on the nursing homes support scheme.

When I updated the House in June, I stated that there were 22,277 people in receipt of financial support under the scheme and that my Department had estimated that almost 24,000 people should be in receipt of financial support by the end of the year. These figures were provided to me by the HSE at the time. However, it now transpires that the figure provided by the HSE included all public beds, as opposed to bed occupants, and was therefore overstated.

Since that time, the HSE has fully implemented a new ICT system across all nursing home support offices. This has been fully operational since the end of October and means that more detailed and timely management information is now available. I can now advise the House that at the end of October, there were 21,474 people in receipt of financial support towards the cost of long-term nursing home care. This figure includes people in receipt of financial support under the nursing homes support scheme, people in receipt of subvention, people in contract beds and people paying inpatient charges in public nursing homes. It is important to note that the number of people in receipt of financial support has not decreased since June; rather, more accurate information has become available in the intervening period.

I apologise to the House for any confusion about this matter. I am now correcting the record at the earliest possible opportunity.