Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I cannot confirm the detail of what the Senator has said, but the basic point he makes is correct. The scheme's funding is constrained, as it was cut this year. As a result, the waiting time has slipped from about four weeks, which most people found to be reasonably acceptable, to 15 or 16 weeks, which people find unacceptable. They are right to find it unacceptable. As things stand, that will get worse as the year goes on. The effect is that older people cannot be transferred from hospital to nursing homes, where they would be much safer and less likely to acquire infections. Thus, there is a problem of delayed discharges in hospitals. There are almost 700 delayed discharges today. If those beds were freed up, we would be able to deal much better with accident and emergency overcrowding and elective waiting lists. That is the present situation and there is no point in denying it.

The Senator's second point is a valid one. I have some experience of the health service in England, where home care and community care are much more advanced. It is easier, therefore, to keep people in their homes for longer and to get people out of hospital because they know that the public health nurse and the home care services will click in on a Saturday or Sunday, or a Friday evening if the need arises.

Ireland has underdeveloped social care services. As a consequence, we have people going into nursing homes sooner in their lives than they might want to. That is the major structural thing that needs to be changed over the next couple of years in Ireland. The more immediate problem is one of funding.