Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raised the structure of elderly care and the need to plan for the future on the initial Stages of the Bill. By 2021 we will need to have an additional 13,000 beds if everyone with certain disabilities or health issues are put into nursing homes. We need to work together in a more comprehensive manner. I discussed it with the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, and had an Adjournment debate on it. The Irish Nursing Homes Organisation, INHO, and the INMO want a forum to be set up, comprising groups like the INHO, the INMO, those providing home care packages, HIQA, the HSE and the Department of Health.

The major complaint among these organisations is that their representatives go into the Department of Health on separate days and are never in there together. The INMO and the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation have both highlighted this matter. If either of them raises an issue with the Department, it is taken on board in a comprehensive manner. However, there is no sharing of information among the groups. This matter does not relate to developing policy or anything of that nature, it is about ticking all the boxes and ensuring that everyone is working together. There may be other groups which should also be involved.

If one considers the figures relating to the care of the elderly, by 2030, which is only 17 years hence, in excess of 900,000 members of the population will be over the age of 65. One size does not fit all and it is extremely important that we should carry out forward planning. Cognisance must be taken of that. What existed previously will not necessarily be applicable in the future and that must be taken into account in the context of the Bill. That is the reason the legislation was introduced. It may contain some provisions which I may not like but I must be a realist in the context of existing demands and also those which will arise in the next five to 15 years.