Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I can give the Senator the reply. There are 22,000 beds and it is costing €970 million per year. They are the figures. The Senator has incorrect figures so he should check them. That is the first point.

Second, with regard to the fair deal scheme, it is interesting to note that the scheme involves 80% of people's income and 7.5% of people's assets, to a maximum cap of three years. My understanding is that the amount of money recovered from estates, and the fair deal scheme has been up and running since 2009, is approximately €7.5 million over a 12 month period. That is €7.5 million recovered out of a total of €970 million spent. I refer to assets, not income. The issue that must be raised here is what level of security the HSE is putting in place in respect of recovering that part of the funding under the scheme.

The other issue I wish to raise is the Irish Medical Organisation, IMO, agreement with the Department.I welcome the agreement and I think it is the first step in the reform of the health system insofar as it concerns GPs. It is a welcome development. GPs make a huge contribution to health care but we need to take another step. A pilot study that was recently carried out on accident and emergency units indicated that 30% of people who attended over the weekend could have been adequately treated by GPs rather than attending the accident and emergency unit. The Department and HSE should examine how to work with GPs to ensure that more people attend their clinics rather than accident and emergency units. There were over 1.1 million attendances at accident and emergency unit last year, and we must work to reduce pressure on the hospital service. One way of doing so is to work closely with GPs, which we could deal with in a debate on the next occasion the Minister is in the Chamber. It is a debate to which we should give serious consideration.