Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

It is wonderful that we have this type of service and that many people give of their time voluntarily to assist others. We commend and express our appreciation of people throughout the country who are involved in that service.

The Department strongly supports the development of sheltered housing accommodation for older people, as it provides a real alternative to residential care and reflects the desire of older people to live with as much independence as possible. To support the development of sheltered housing, a full year commitment of €l million will be allocated, split evenly between 2006 and 2007, to provide front-line health service support, such as therapists and public health nurses or for sheltered housing.

The HSE is developing proposals in the primary and community care areas in 2006 which are new ways of delivering service and which reflect best practise elsewhere. The proposals should reflect the very significant emphasis on home care and involve non-statutory agencies working in partnership with the HSE. A total of €4 million, €2 million in each of the next two years, is being made available to the Health Service Executive for such initiatives to improve and increase services delivered to older people. A total of €2 million is being allocated to address the important issue of elder abuse, again split evenly between 2006 and 2007. This level of funding will facilitate the implementation of the full range of recommendations contained in the report Protecting Our Future. Approximately €2.5 million has already been made available in recent years towards implementing the report, and this funding shows our commitment to this issue. It will also provide for the development of a research function in this area.

Inevitably, there are those who because of their level of dependency will require residential care. It is this Government's intention to facilitate and support these people and to do so in a meaningful way. A total of €20 million is being allocated to the nursing home subvention scheme for residents of private nursing homes. This represents an increase of 14% over 2005, which has an estimated spend of €140 million. The €20 million is a 2006 full year cost and will go towards both basic nursing home subvention and enhanced subvention and reducing waiting lists for enhanced subventions.

The sum of €8 million is being provided to cover the cost of 250 extra nursing home beds which the HSE is already in the process of sourcing from private nursing homes. The Department is updating the subvention scheme for payments to people in nursing homes. The purpose of this change is to make the assessment criteria for subventions, which have not been updated since 1993, reflect the major changes in property values.