Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Home care is an extremely important issue, one where there is need for long-term planning. That has been lacking in health care throughout the past 15 years. Let us take nursing homes, for example. Under the former Taoiseach's jurisdiction there was a massive failure and as a result ¤485 million had to be refunded to people. It is a pity that sum is not available now because it would pay for many home-care packages.

In fairness to the Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, he is dealing with the issues and doing long-term planning. Take the drug scheme, for example, which I mentioned earlier this week, whereby we will save ¤400 million in the coming three years. Yesterday health insurers agreed to pay out ¤125 million in advance. It is about budgeting and ensuring we use the moneys we have effectively. The Government intends to ensure that the number of people who can avail of home-care packages will grow rather than decrease. We must deal with existing budgetary constraints but the plan is to grow the number of available packages so that the maximum number of people can remain in their homes rather than be referred to nursing homes. The Minister will be doing that during the coming three years. It is about the long-term planning that had not been in place. That will happen in the lifetime of this Government.