Liam Twomey (Fine Gael)

I agree with Senator Doherty's comment on the availability of palliative care services, which are abysmal. It is shocking that many areas of the country do not have proper hospice care facilities to care for people with specific and special palliative care needs. In my county I believe there are two dedicated beds in an ordinary nursing home that were handed over for the provision of palliative care. We do not have a full palliative care team. A palliative care team involves a wider structure, which I will not detail now, but it does not exist in my county. In some parts of the country up to 83% of palliative care is provided by way of voluntary contributions, while in other areas 83% of the cost is provided by central government funds. There is gross inequality when it comes to the provision of palliative care throughout the country.

I do not mind that this exists in this Finance Bill and I will explain the reason for that. Because of the absolute lack of available services, there are private hospice centres providing excellent services but they are very expensive because the families pay for everything. As hospice palliative care often involves people with chronic illnesses such as Alzheimer's and other degenerative conditions, it is an unbelievable cost to the families involved. I do not see any other way of providing these services in the short term unless some form of incentive is given. It is detrimental to families. It has an unbelievable long-term effect on the entire family when palliative care services are not delivered to the family involved.

The Government should pay for this very expensive service. People will not make money out of the palliative care service. They may in time make money out of a private hospital because they can cherry-pick off the public sector in the future but they will not make money out of palliative care. The Government might have to examine that in terms of supporting families. They may or may not become part of the new deal in time but there is a need to support families when it comes to palliative care. I hope they will become part of the new deal process. I do not have an objection to that but I agree with Senator Doherty on the non-existence of these services and the fact that they be provided by voluntary organisations in most parts of the country.