Ivor Callely (Fianna Fail)

I asked the Minister about the assessment by the National Treatment Purchase Fund in regard to the provision of the public bed. We are bringing in legislation that we say will be better than what exists, fairer and so on but I have a serious "bogey" with this aspect. Regardless of what is said on the floor of this House, and I do not know how an official of the NTPF may use this measure with a nursing home proprietor, but subparagraph (iii) states: "the Board may examine the records and accounts of an approved nursing home or of a nursing home the proprietor of which proposes to enter into arrangements under paragraph (1)(ba)". If that measure goes into legislation it may or may not be used by an official of the National Treatment Purchase Fund. We do not know the context in which he or she may use it but we do know the public nursing home around the corner will not be subjected to the same scrutiny as the private operator. There is something wrong in that. I may misunderstand this section, and I hope that is the case, but it would be remiss of the Minister not to accept that there is a difficulty in this respect, that there is an unfairness and an imbalance and that it should be rectified in some form or at least further considered on Report Stage.