Mary White (Fianna Fail)

I support the revision. As spokesperson on older people, I was pleased to see that older people in Ireland were able to exert their influence to get it changed and rather than the 62% who would have been given a medical card it is now 95%. We were talking this morning about the United States and the people of that country engaging in the political process. In my view, real-life politics was the meeting I attended in Westland Row church with 1,600 older people filling the church, not one seat left vacant and 15,000 people out in the street. The older people in Ireland have got their voice. We talk a lot about the grey vote but to me it was grey rage, shown by the passion which the people expressed to have this measure changed.

Many of the people in Westland Row church were women. The Minister may remember that up until 1973 when we joined the EU, when women married, they were forced to give up their jobs in the public and private sectors. The women who spoke at the meeting told of how they had to give up their jobs on marriage, how they had no choice and could not work. In my mother's time it was culturally unacceptable for a woman to work, even if she had a skill which would get a job. Many of the women who participated in the meeting in Westland Row church were that group of women who had to give up their jobs. They stayed at home and minded their children and now the one thing they were given for free, the medical card, was being taken away from them. They were incensed and passionate. The grey vote and grey rage was successful in this case. As a business person I congratulate the Minister. If people see something is not working and do not have the guts to change it, then they are no good for anything, so I am delighted.

My purpose this morning is to talk about the fair deal scheme. I spoke in Drogheda to the local active citizens group. I went there specially to speak about the fair deal scheme and to explain it to them. This is a superb scheme. I supported the Minister when she came to present it to the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting a year and a half ago and I wholeheartedly accepted the benefits of this scheme. It will provide a level playing field whereby access to nursing home care will be affordable, accessible and anxiety free.

I refer to my policy document of June 2006, A New Approach to Ageing and Ageism, with which I am sure the Minister is familiar. I listed 30 recommendations and recommendation No. 18 states:

The Government should encourage the provision of innovative financial arrangements ... that would enable older people to raise funds from their home to cover the cost of care while still retaining full possession of their home.

This is the beauty of the scheme, in my view, that people will be able to retain their homes. Many people find this fair deal scheme difficult to understand because there is a bit of mathematics involved but if they sit down with a pen and pencil and work out the 80% of their income and the 5% of the value of their house, they will have no bother in understanding it.

Nursing home care is very unequal throughout the country as a whole and citizens are not treated equally in the current situation. This is very unfair and I am an advocate for the new scheme. I ask the Minister in her response to say how sufficient public beds will be provided. Currently there are more private beds than public beds. I ask her to say what arrangements will be in place to provide more public beds if a person wishes to go into a public nursing home.

Currently the charges for nursing home care throughout the country range from €800 to €1,500 per week. This in itself is a sign that something is wrong if one Irish person has to pay more than another person. At last night's meeting of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party, I made the point that this scheme is not just for older people; it is for any person who needs long-term residential nursing care. It is not just for the over 65s. The scheme is also available to somebody of 40 years of age who has been assessed as needing residential care as a result of Alzheimer's or whatever. Every Irish person is entitled to be assessed whether he or she needs long-term residential care. This is the democratic nature of the scheme.

Some speakers at last night's Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting questioned whether there would be asset stripping if a person's house was worth €2.5 million. I have no time for that whatsoever. Last Monday in Drogheda, one man said they all would sell their houses to their children in advance of needing to go into a nursing home. It would be much better where a person has to go into a nursing home and is then able to return to his or her home, that this home has not been designated in advance as being owned by his or her children. There is nothing so precious as having one's own home and one's own nest in which one can be happy and relaxed.

I am convinced about this scheme and I acknowledge there will be issues to be resolved during the passage of the Bill through the Houses. Returning to my point about older people showing their power, I was not upset or annoyed but rather I was impressed that the over 70s had the passion to come out and object and say they wanted to hold on to their medical cards.

I recommend to the Minister a book by Julia Neuberger which is a manifesto for old age, entitled Not Dead Yet.