John Kelly (Labour)

I will be brief. I welcome the Minister of State, my party colleague, to the House.

In recent years I often referred to the fair deal scheme as an "unfair" deal. I agree with every statement made in the House today by all Members. We represent every sector of society and every statement should be taken on board and another look taken at how we deliver nursing home care to the elderly and deal with that group in general.

It is absolutely necessary that we evaluate the situation of elderly people who are in nursing homes to see what we can do for them and whether we should prepare to accommodate them in the community. That is where they want to be and home care packages were devised to provide that for them although funds were misappropriated within many health boards or health service areas and spent on other items. In County Roscommon most people died before their number came up, so to speak, for getting any kind of home care package money. One hour of home help per day will not entice a family to keep an elderly person at home. In County Roscommon we now talk about home help "minutes", which is absolutely laughable.

There is another unfair issue in the unfair deal. Under the old subvention system those farmers whose parents went into a nursing home did not have their farms assessed when the elderly person went into the home. Most cases in my part of the country applied to very small farmers, most of whom were in receipt of farm assistance or social welfare, or to social welfare recipients whose parents went into a nursing home without their houses being assessed. It was a big mistake to effectively privatise our public nursing homes, bringing them under the remit of what I refer to as the unfair deal.

When Age Action Ireland reports that elderly people would much prefer to be abused at home than be abused in a nursing home that is quite some choice a person has under a so-called fair deal scheme. That must be addressed.