Brendan Daly (Fianna Fail)

The funding of community hospitals is organised in a haphazard manner. Many community hospitals depend on voluntary collections, such as church gate collections, to keep their doors open. Some of them are given small national lottery grants so they can install community facilities. I am not familiar with the community hospitals in An Daingean and Kenmare. Kilrush Community Hospital, with which I am familiar, has 66 patients. It is run by a voluntary committee and survives on the voluntary subscriptions it receives from patients and other members of the community. It is necessary to amend the budgetary system in order that community hospitals are funded in a regular and systematic manner. They should not have to depend on the haphazard payment of funds from the national lottery or the CLÁR programme. I would welcome an opportunity to discuss the matter with the Minister for Health and Children.

It was suggested some months ago that subvention payments would be increased from 1 January 2007, but very little, if anything, has been done in that regard at administrative level. Many people in institutions and hospitals have to depend on their families and others to meet the cost of their accommodation because the level of subvention they are paid is quite low. While a promise has been made to increase such payments, the technicalities of that process are slow, tedious and boring. Some people are very distraught about what is happening. Can the Minister for Health and Children be invited to the House to indicate when the Health Service Executive will deal with the administration of the subvention scheme? When will payments be made to ensure family members can stay in care institutions? There is a great deal of concern in the community hospital sector about the severe burden that is falling on families. The recent price increases have made it difficult for many people to make ends meet. The HSE is not dealing with the problem. It seems it does not have the staff or the facilities it needs to deal with these issues. Payments have been due to many people since 1 January but very little, if anything, is happening in that regard.