Mary Henry (Independent)

This is the most astonishing piece of bureaucratic bungling by the Department of Health and Children which there is no point discussing. However, these issues seem to recur and I ask the Minister of State to address the issue in his reply. For example, I was amazed to find a Department of Health and Children estimate of 35,000 extra people being in need of medical cards was, in fact, only 50% of the number which eventually applied for them. This sort of occurrence is inexplicable except when one discovers that officials in the Department of Health and Children were given the details of the over-70s free medical card scheme days before it was introduced. Such important schemes should not be pulled like a rabbit out of a hat by the Ministers for Finance or Health and Children; there should be proper planning.

Will the Minister of State use this occasion to plan for people in old age who may not want to go into nursing homes? At present, there are people who feel they have been robbed of their pensions by being sent to nursing homes when they might have far preferred to have stayed outside if more facilities had been available.

During the debate on child care yesterday, I raised the issue of the scheme in France whereby one can use special social care cheques which can be given to people who work in one's home caring, for example, for children or elderly people. The cheques can be up to a value of approximately €5,000 to €6,000. They can be obtained in banks and the money can be used tax free while the person who receives the cheques can accumulate them up to a taxable income. This means people are not engaged with the black economy. It provides a very good reason for giving those who pay for the care a tax free allowance in this way because the Exchequer will take in more tax. The promotion of day care hospitals and respite care for carers will help the situation so that we do not have to have the number of people in nursing homes who do not want to be there.