Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Last night, Sinn Féin brought a motion before the Dáil calling on the Government to ensure that households are protected from electricity and gas disconnection this winter. Our motion proposes a ban on disconnections now instead of waiting until December as the Government's plan suggests. It would provide desperately needed protection and certainty for the hundreds of thousands of households using pre-paid meters. The Government has stated it will not oppose the motion and this is to be welcomed.

Those struggling to pay their energy bills need urgent action now to implement these measures without delay. It is nearly three weeks since the Taoiseach stated nobody would be disconnected this winter, including households using pre-paid meters. As the Taoiseach knows, I welcomed it at the time. Since then, I and others have asked the Taoiseach repeatedly for his plan to deliver on this commitment but he has not provided an answer. Instead, we hear that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is to publish a plan in the coming weeks. Those struggling to pay their electricity bills do not have the luxury of weeks. They are in trouble now.

As we speak, more than 200,000 households are in electricity arrears. The fear of disconnection is very real and very present for them. This will only get worse as people scramble to keep up with the soaring cost of living. The October bills are arriving now. They are landing like a body blow. I spoke to a woman last night who told me that the heart was put crossways in her when she saw her bill. She said she felt winded. That is how she described it.

People work hard all day but are afraid to turn on the lights when they come home. Parents worry that they will be disconnected and that their children will not have light to do their homework. Many families using prepaid meters are forced to have dark days and to ration their electricity. This is where it is at for so many people. Asking these households to wait on the never-never for the Government's plan is not good enough. They need the Government to act now to ensure every single household is protected from disconnection. This has to include those using pre-paid meters.

I have said before to the Taoiseach but let me repeat that there is a simple solution to what is a big problem. Some pre-paid companies already have disconnection bans in place at weekends and some public holidays. This ban should be extended to provide these households with 24-7 protection until the end of March. The Taoiseach needs to grasp this solution. Do not leave people waiting and waiting with unimaginable stress. Ní mór teaghlaigh a chosaint ó dhícheangal fuinnimh an geimhreadh seo. Caithfidh an Rialtas cosc ar dhícheangal a thabhairt isteach anois agus cinntiú go n-áirítear iad siúd a úsáideann méadair íoc-mar-a-úsáidtear.

I want the Taoiseach to follow up on the decision not to oppose our motion and to deliver for these households. This means a ban on disconnections starting immediately. It means including those on pre-pay meters now and providing them with an absolute assurance that they will not be disconnected. Yesterday, I said sincerely to the Taoiseach that we will work with the Government to get the eviction ban in place as quickly as possible. We need the same urgency and willingness to work together to ensure no household is disconnected this winter.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We all share this view and objective. The Minister has met with the companies and suppliers, with MABS, with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and with other non-governmental organisations that are at the coalface in respect of challenges that certain families or people may experience, particularly during a winter like this. The Government has taken a number of measures. We are not standing by or waiting. By any fair measure, the budget announcements are significant to ensure people have the wherewithal to avoid disconnection and, in particular, to meet the significant increase in electricity costs. This is apart from the measures taken earlier in the year.

The €600 energy credit is a significant intervention. There will be three payments of €200 in the billing periods of November-December 2022, January-February 2023 and March-April 2023. We go further then, with more than €2.5 billion provided in the budget to support households. There is a €400 lump sum payment for fuel allowance recipients. There is a €200 lump sum payment for pensioners. There is a €500 cost-of-living lump sum payment for all families getting the working family payment. There is a double payment of child benefit to support all families with children. A €500 cost-of living payment for people receiving the carer's support grant will be paid in November. The €500 cost-of-living disability support grant will be paid to all people receiving a long-term disability payment. These are substantial interventions. They are far stronger than what Sinn Féin proposed in its alternative budget. We will leave that to one side. I will not go through the list. Its alternative budget was quite poor in respect of the fuel allowance and pensioners. That is the bottom line. It had major gaps.

The winter moratorium on disconnections of all domestic customers for non-payment has been extended to three months, as I said yesterday, from 1 December to 28 February. In respect of pay-as-you-go meters, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has decided to suspend the €200 gas meter exchange siteworks charge associated with a customer moving from a pay-as-you-go gas meter to a bill-pay credit meter for all domestic customers. This is welcome. The level of emergency credit for prepaid meters was increased. The CRU is examining this further.

In the Minister's engagement with quite a number of NGOs, they warned against increasing the overdraft because it would increase debt for families. It is called a credit but in essence it is an overdraft. We would prefer for this not to happen and to seek more effective ways to support people who could end up in difficulty or may have challenges with pay-as-you-go. The Minister will continue to engage with a number of stakeholders to make sure no one is disconnected. Following his discussions with the companies and with the CRU, we do not believe disconnections will happen. There are people who could be in difficulty and we are looking at what is the best mechanism to prevent anyone from being disconnected, as opposed to just increasing the credit and the overdraft, which could lead to further debt for families who do not need to get into further debt.

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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The difficulty lies in the Taoiseach's statement that the Minister "will continue to engage". I am very concerned that there is not a sense of pace in the Taoiseach's response to this situation, which is one of incredible stress and worry for hundreds of thousands of families throughout the land. The Taoiseach's concern about people falling into debt is understandable but I need to say that a far greater concern for those using prepaid meters is that they will not have supply to their homes.

We need to deal with that as a matter of urgency. As I said, many prepay companies already allow protection on weekends and specific public holidays. The best and most straightforward way to deal with this matter is to extend that protection on a 24-7 basis. The Minister does not need to hold endless rounds of meeting with people to arrive at that conclusion. I appeal to the Taoiseach as a matter of urgency to adopt that position and to approach those companies and tell them we need this ban in place now.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Again, the measures introduced by the Government are substantial on the income side in respect of providing funding to people to meet electricity bills, with substantial monthly payments from now until the end of the year. They should not be so lightly dismissed as the Government doing nothing. The scale and volume of those payments is unprecedented. In addition, there are other measures the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has taken in respect of pay-as-you-go customers as well measures through additional needs and social protection.

Tá an Rialtas ag déanamh gach rud chun cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine atá i dtrioblóid-----

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Unbelievable.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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-----de dheasca na bpraghsanna ag dul chomh ard agus atá siad. Coimeádfaimid súil ar sin chun cabhair a thabhairt do dhaoine i rith an gheimhridh ar fad agus táim muiníneach go mbeidh an tAire, a bhuí leis an méid atá déanta ag an Rialtas go dtí seo, in ann daoine a chosaint.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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The "Prime Time" programme on the decline of O'Connell Street last night made for grim viewing, but I do not think any of us were particularly shocked or surprised by it. O'Connell Street and the surrounding area have been in decline for several years. As we saw in the programme last night, a variety of problems are now endemic to the area. There is widespread antisocial behaviour, open drug taking and drug dealing, persistent serious violent incidents, chronic dereliction and vacancy, and deeply ingrained dirt and grime almost everywhere one looks. It has the look of an area where those in authority have simply given up.

Walking along the O'Connell Street, almost everything on one side from the Spire to the Ambassador Theatre is derelict and deserted. The area around the Abbey Theatre is similarly derelict, desolate and filthy. This is our national theatre, the area around which should be one of the jewels in the crown of the cultural quarter of the north city. Last night, Dublin City Council defended its performance by noting there would be a deep clean of O'Connell Bridge this month. Seriously, is that the best it can do? This would not be tolerated in any other European capital city.

When it comes to tackling antisocial behaviour, a new Garda station was promised by the Minister for Justice in April, but that has now been downgraded to a Garda liaison office. Perhaps this is unsurprising as we recently found out that the 800 new gardaí promised this year will not materialise. Just 460 new Garda recruits will have completed or be in the middle of training by the end of this year. Even if there were a sustained Garda response, in isolation, it would not work to alleviate the problems.

The scourge of drug addiction is often at the root of criminal justice issues, which, in turn, is a product of deprivation and poverty. Successive Governments have promised better drug services and supervised injection centres for years, but they have yet to materialise. We have just 23 dedicated hospital detox and stabilisation beds throughout the country. The number of rehabilitation beds is also risibly low. The issues are clearly multifaceted, but the question is: what is going to be done about them? What we need is a multi-agency approach about which there needs to be urgency. That is why I call on the Taoiseach to head up a task force to rejuvenate and clean up O'Connell Street to bring it back to some kind of level that we can be proud of as a capital city main street.

Statements will be taken on this in the Chamber next month. Will the Taoiseach agree to bringing forward a plan for a task force under the remit of his Department on that day?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. I do not disagree with her that there are serious societal issues on O’Connell Street, as shown on “Prime Time” yesterday evening. One is struck by the extraordinary wanton violence perpetrated by people against others on our streets late in the evening. There is no question that the free exchange of drugs on the streets is obvious to many people, and people have been commenting for quite some time about the drug activity on the streets of the capital, particularly around O’Connell Street and the quays. Many people say that they are afraid to walk some of these streets.

It is a multifaceted problem but, in the first instance, I always reflect on the fact that there are times when Members speak enthusiastically about local authorities being delegated responsibility to develop their city. We cannot take the view here that the local authority has no role or should not be a central driving force behind O'Connell Street. There are significant plans for the fabric of O’Connell Street, which became the subject of a lot of controversy in respect of the Hammerson site, for example, and the GPO and all the side lanes, and that went on for years. Oireachtas Members sat on joint committees regarding that. There is no question that the fabric of the street has to change. There is a choice to be made by all of us and decisions have to be made, but the default position has been whether we can keep the campaign going, by opposing development, for another ten years.

I have heard people talk about the rejuvenation of O’Connell Street for 25 years. Oireachtas Members formed a committee with local councillors and people. A solution emerged but not everyone is happy with that and they want to go back to the drawing board and start again. If we are being honest, given our planning laws and everything else, it will mean another decade of no development on the street, and, therefore, we have to make choices. Sometimes politicians have to stand up and make decisions about the future of their city and country and not hide forever behind a campaign and pander to every interest, no matter how legitimate it may be. Sometimes a solution has to be worked out and a consensus has to emerge, and not everybody will be happy with every aspect of that.

The physical neglect of the street and the need to accelerate the development of the streetscape from residential to retail is important. The drug issue is very important, but then again, people have objected to injection centres and various facilities that people and agencies have endeavoured to bring in, which is also a sad reality. I believe in the health-based approach to drugs and drug addiction in particular. An Garda Síochána has a range of operations on O’Connell Street and in the capital, but it is not a Garda issue on its own by any definition.

I am not opposing what the Deputy said but we need to discuss this further in terms of a task force being a panacea for this.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Taoiseach for describing the problem, but I asked him about what he is going to do about it. This is the main street of our capital city, and it is a disgrace. I asked him if he would consider establishing a Taoiseach's task force. Will he bring proposals to this House next month when statements on O’Connell Street will be taken?

We have talked about this for long enough and this is now at a tipping point. Businesses are complaining that they cannot get footfall on O'Connell Street because of the state of the street and the danger that is present. Will the Taoiseach head up a multi-agency task force under his Department, which we all agree is desperately needed? Will he establish it now so that we can start taking action before the street further declines? It is at a tipping point. We can point to various people who represented Dublin Central down through the years such as a former Minister for Finance and a Taoiseach who was a Fianna Fáil representative for 35 years.

The current Minister for Finance has been in office for several years and represents that area, yet the street is a disgrace. Will the Taoiseach take action and deal with this, and stop just describing the problems?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I took the Deputy as raising this issue in good faith. The last part of her contribution suggests that she is reducing this to basic partisan politics, which is unworthy of the issue.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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We need action.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Dublin City Council is there to run this city. That is why we have councils. We have each way bets all the time in the House, saying that we have taken too much power from local authorities. Dublin City Council has to be at the heart of the rejuvenation of O'Connell Street. A community safety partnership has been established for some time.

As I said at the end of my first reply I was open, but I think it needs more discussion. The idea of the Office of the Taoiseach being the panacea for everything in the country is not a runner. The Office of the Taoiseach led work on the north-east inner city and so on. We are moving from different parts of the city all of the time. It needs something more structured and systemic than just a task force. I will give consideration to what the Deputy has put forward, as I said. Of course, the Deputy did not listen and hear that. She came back and had a go at previous Ministers and the current Minister for Finance as if to say it is up to him to sort out all of these issues. It is much more complex than that, and the Deputy knows that. In council areas in other cities, councils come up with plans and ideas as to how cities should develop.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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If the Government stopped the LPT in Dublin city-----

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Months of Opposition pressure, public anger and protest yesterday dragged the Government kicking and screaming into bringing in a temporary eviction ban. According to the Government's interesting figures yesterday, as welcome as the belated ban is it still means that 2, 273 people will face eviction after the ban ends, which means that the level of homelessness is likely to be up to 13,000 to 14,000 people. Of course, we all know that, in any event, those figures are an understatement.

Evictions and homelessness are the most horrible symptom of the deeper and more fundamental underlying failure of the Government to address the housing crisis and deliver the affordable and public housing we need to solve that crisis. The Central Bank decision to change mortgage rules is yet another symptom of that failure. We now risk repeating the mistakes of the Celtic tiger, saddling another generation of mortgage holders with potentially crippling debts, in particular if interest rates go up.

All of this speaks to a situation whereby people who need a home are caught in a vice grip of extortionate unaffordable rents and house prices and a chronic lack of public and affordable housing. What does the Government intend to do? In the interests of being constructive, just as we proposed the eviction ban I want to make some proposals about what the Government should do over the coming months. First, the State must buy up all the properties of landlords who are selling up and exiting the market. That deals with the problem of landlords exiting from rental properties. It should be a systematic policy.

I see that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, is whispering to the Taoiseach that that is happening. Of all of the ones I have raised in my area, not a single property has yet got over the line. We want to see that happen. The State must buy up developer and investor properties to ensure that every new property that comes on the market is affordable. There is no point in developers delivering stuff that nobody can afford. The Government should buy up those properties. There should be an aggressive campaign to take vacant and derelict properties into use, including a punitive - the one introduced in the budget is not - vacant property tax that forces them in.

Private building is starting to slow down, therefore a State construction company should be established to equip and support local authorities to deliver public and affordable housing directly. Can we raise the income limits, something that has been promised for more than a year, so that all of those who cannot afford extortionate rents and house prices get the support of the State in being housed?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have made it very clear, and I will say it again, that housing is the single most important social issue facing our society and country. In the past two years we have dedicated unprecedented financial resources to deal with housing. The fundamental approach has to be to increase supply. We have had to deal with Covid-19 and two lockdowns, which hit construction hard. We then had an exponential increase in prices brought about by the war in Ukraine and an inflationary cycle, all of which has dented confidence in builders and so on in terms of certainty for the future. We intervened very quickly in respect of public contracts and tendering to enable builders to have more confidence in tenders in order to try to stabilise the situation. That is the reality so far.

We will meet the target of about 25,000 houses his year, but we need far more than that. Supply is key. That means all of us have to be very focused on making sure all the projects that are developed, designed and brought to the planning stage are allowed through, unless they are horrendous altogether. By and large, we do not have the luxury of opposing projects because of their mix. The Deputy may not like private housing being mixed with sociable or affordable housing on public lands. In my view, we have to get houses built at a far faster rate than we are currently getting them built. There are issues we will deal with, such as the review of the planning code to make sure it is more streamlined and can facilitate not just housing but also infrastructure projects.

The State is buying properties that have been sold by landlords, where we have tenants on HAP or RAS. The Minister has made it very clear to local authority managers that they may buy houses or apartments that are being sold and which are occupied by people on RAS or HAP. That funding is there for local authorities to use. Local authorities have to have some discretion. That is only sensible.

Also, 18,390 new social housing units have been added to the social housing stock under this Government up to quarter 2 of 2022. That includes 11,301 new builds. In addition to that, 6,000 social homes were brought back into us through the voids programme. Such houses were derelict or not refurbished and we moved very quickly to bring them back into the system. The same will happen with close to a further 2,500 homes in 2022. The State is the biggest actor in the housing market right now. It is intervening across the board.

The Deputy has asked for a national construction company.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Yes.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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That would take another year and a bit to establish.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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What?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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It would take another year and a half to get it established and up and running. We have established the Land Development Agency through legislation, which is dealing with a lot of development, to try to get social and affordable, as well as other housing, going using State lands. We already have an agency as an engine to get housing built as fast as we possibly can.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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According to the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council's figures, if it meets, or slightly exceeds, the target for social and affordable housing in my area there will be more people on the housing list in four years' time than there are now. That is how inadequate the policy is. We need additional measures beyond what the Government has done to date.

On the issue of buying properties, are rent supplements included in the HAP and RAS purchases? We need clarity on that. People who are over the threshold because they have not been raised are left in limbo if they are faced with eviction or are already homeless. Furthermore, there is planning permission already in existence for tens of thousands of units. Planning permission is not the problem. The problem is whether units are going to be built. It is looking like the private sector may not deliver them. Will they be affordable when they are built? There is no point in selling houses at extortionate prices and saddling people with huge debts or extortionate rents that people cannot afford. That is why we need a State construction company and for income limits to be raised. What about a serious vacant property tax to force the empty units back into use?

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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We will take measures to force vacant units back into use and, more important, to force zoned land into use. The Ministers for Finance and Housing, Local Government and Heritage are working on that specific point.

I agree additional measures will have to be taken, over and above what we have done. We are constantly at this in respect of adding capacity and trying to get more houses built, and that will continue. Income thresholds will be increased by the end of the year with regard to social housing. That will not increase supply. It will help people in certain circumstances to access social housing but it will not necessarily increase supply.

The LDA is working on private developments that are not taking off or starting with a view to going in itself and making sure that we can get them started and get houses built. That is happening and those engagements have started. Anywhere we can see opportunities to get houses built, we will get them built. We need everybody's co-operation from hereon in. That is very important. I do not say it in any flippant or partisan way. It is just absolutely essential that we allow projects through and get them up and running.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I hate doing this. I am not looking at anybody in particular but I would like to give a gentle reminder to Members to put their phones on silent out of respect for the proceedings.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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We are facing a crisis in the nursing home sector because 16 private nursing homes have already closed this year and 450 beds are gone. Unfortunately, too many owners are at their wits' end in reassessing their current financial position.

The escalation in the cost of energy and the cost of living is certainly a factor, but the underlying cause is the fact that the fair deal funding model is not fit for purpose. This is not something we are only discovering now. It has been flagged time and again in many different reports. There were two from HIQA, one from the Comptroller and Auditor General, one from the Department of Health and one from the Ombudsman.

HIQA's latest report states:

HIQA believes that the closure of small nursing homes should be considered in the context of the loss of a particular model of care and not just in terms of bed numbers. Smaller nursing homes that are embedded in the local community offer person-centred care in a very homely environment. Their closure sometimes means that older people in need of residential care have to travel further in order to receive care. This has a knock-on effect for residents, particularly in terms of visitors, social activities and links to their preferred GP or pharmacy.

The fair deal model is structured in such a way that private nursing homes receive in the region of €600 less per person per week, which is an incredible difference. In January 2022, the average fee payable under fair deal for a HSE nursing home was €1,674 per person per week and €1,047 per person per week for private and voluntary nursing homes .

When I raised this with the Tánaiste previously, he suggested that public nursing homes often deal with people who have more complex care needs. While this may have some validity in a restricted number of cases, it is not the universal situation and cannot explain the considerable difference in payments between private and public nursing homes. An urgent review of the pricing model is needed.

It is also important to remember that nursing homes are a vital link in our health services at all times but especially now when our acute healthcare system is under such pressure. It makes no sense that we are allowing nursing homes to close when our acute hospitals have ever-lengthening waiting lists and people waiting on trolleys and in emergency departments. The Taoiseach can fix this almost overnight. He should put in place a sustainable fair deal model because nursing homes are a vital link in the healthcare chain and that chain is at breaking point.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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There has been huge expansion in the nursing home programme over the years, particularly in terms of the nursing home support programme. Approximately 80% of all nursing homes are private and 20% are under the HSE, which we call community nursing units. The State is allocating approximately €1.4 billion per year to support approximately 22,000 nursing home residents and that has seen a strong increase over the past two years in particular.

During Covid-19, an additional €144 million was allocated to nursing homes. That cannot be dismissed. It was a significant intervention by the State, correctly, to underpin nursing homes in respect of the challenges that Covid-19 undoubtedly presented to them. All Deputies know the details of that intervention.

The cases of residents in community nursing homes are more complex. We should not dismiss the difference. The cases are more complex by definition and there are more staff in community nursing units. That said, we acknowledge the issues and challenges because the private nursing home sector is going through some change, with regard to financial underpinning of larger nursing homes, in the sense that large organisations are coming in and smaller and community-based nursing homes are feeling the pressure. That is acknowledged and we accept it.

That is why a significant package is being discussed and will be implemented, the announcement of which is imminent, for nursing homes to deal with the inflationary cost increases they are experiencing. Substantial funding is being made available to the Minister of State at the Department of Health, Deputy Butler, to do so. Discussions have been taking place with nursing home organisations. It will help to deal with the inflationary pressures that nursing homes undoubtedly face. The temporary assistance payment scheme will also continue to the end of the year.

There have been a number of reviews of the pricing mechanism and that is the subject matter of negotiations. The National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, under legislation that was passed quite a number of years ago, is the body delegated to arbitrate on price for nursing homes. An outcome is also imminent to get that resolved. We acknowledge that needs resolution but legislation passed in this House has ordained that be done through an independent mechanism, namely, the NTPF.

Changes are going on in the dynamic within the private nursing home sector and senior care. The allocation to home-based care will grow and the nature and duration of stay or residency in a nursing home will change in the time ahead.

Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)
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I acknowledge what the Taoiseach said in that there are various initiatives in the pipeline but two nursing homes closed in County Roscommon and one closed in Athlone, County Westmeath last week. The lady was on RTÉ and the figures are public knowledge. She said that her nursing home received €950 per person per week but the local public nursing home received €1,915 per person per week. That is not tenable. No private nursing home could survive that black hole in funding provision.

The Taoiseach spoke about money given during Covid, which was most welcome, but we all remember the considerable restrictions and challenges and every cent of that was needed to deal with Covid. It did not deal with the underlying problem, that is, the funding mechanism under fair deal. I hope what I heard the Taoiseach say is that the initiatives he is now looking at will begin to deal with that. According to its most recent report, HIQA believes that the closure of smaller nursing homes requires urgent attention to avoid further closures impacting on the lives of residents, their families and friends. That is from HIQA; it requires urgent attention.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the person who set up HIQA, I take its guidance seriously. It has been very effective in increasing standards in health in this country since its initiation in the early 2000s. We take its point of view seriously because we want to protect and do everything we can to support smaller nursing homes as well because they are important in local communities for obvious reasons such as proximity to families and so forth.

It is important, therefore, that we do whatever we can to underpin nursing homes. I get the sense that since Covid-19, State underpinning of nursing homes is growing. It was a very significant intervention during Covid in addition to the nursing homes support scheme itself. We have a significant inflationary package coming in before the end of the year to support nursing homes to get through the energy crisis. Then there is the issue of the pricing arrangements, which are set by the NTPF, in terms of increasing those or at least having a serious discussion. There have been a number of reviews undertaken here so it is not as if people do not know there is work under way, because there is, on trying to get the right formula that would make ends meet for the nursing homes concerned.