John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with all Members who have spoken so far. I also compliment Senators O'Donnell and van Turnhout for tabling the motion. We are all on the side of the elderly but will there be any action after all of this talk? I have worked with older people and know that we have made some good strides but a lot more needs to be done. I will outline one of the improvement that have been made. This time last year in order to qualify for the fair deal scheme, one had to wait between 14 and 16 weeks and pay upfront but now the wait is only two weeks. That is a massive improvement in waiting times, which is welcome.

However, there has been enough investment in home care packages and in the home help service. I know from talking to home helps, a fact which I have said over the past couple of years, in my county one is not talking about home help hours any more but home help minutes. Home helps have been asked to go into houses for 15 minutes to do whatever they can but that is nothing. Massive improvements need to take place there. More investment in home care packages and home helps will also save on the fair deal scheme.

An issue I raised in the Seanad some weeks ago is that there is no joined up thinking between Departments. Each Department has a budget and Departments do not talk to each other. For instance, I know a lady in my county who suffered a stroke some months ago. She is now in a bed in Galway, which costs the State €100,000 a year. All she wants is a grant from the local authority to adapt her home and make it suitable for her to leave her bed and be looked after by her family.The grant would be €35,000 but because she is a little bit over the limit, she does not qualify for it. If there was joined-up thinking between Departments, the Minister for Health would say to the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government that they could save €65,000 by just giving this woman the grant. The money is all coming out of the same pocket.

As has been said by other speakers, we all know elderly people who do not want to go to a nursing home. They want to be cared for at home. Michael Lambert, who was the oldest man in Ireland and who died last year at the age of 107, was a neighbour of mine. He never spent a day in a nursing home and was in great health up to his death. We should be doing more for the day care centres mentioned by Senator Ó Murchú. I visit the day care centre in my own town on a regular basis. It is a big part of keeping somebody in their home. It is vital for their sanity. I also visit the psychiatric day care centre. For some unknown reason, the psychiatric services in the past couple of years have all been about saving money. I got a call from two psychiatric patients who attend the day care centre in Ballaghaderreen. They were frightened by the threat of the bus service being withdrawn. Even though clinical decisions had been made by the chief psychiatrist that they should attend the day care centre in Ballaghaderreen rather than one in Castlerea, somebody in administration decided it cost too much and is threatening to remove it. We talk a lot about what we should be doing but we are not actually doing a lot about it.

My last point concerns how farmers are assessed for the fair deal scheme. There is a difference between the farmer I know in rural Ireland and the rancher in County Meath. Farmers have small farms that are not worth a lot. I do not think their farms should be assessed against them as a business once they go into a nursing home. A smart farmer who can think ahead and is clever enough to transfer his land to somebody else in excess of five years previously is fine because his land is not assessed against him when he goes into a nursing home. If somebody does not think ahead about the day they might have to go into a nursing home, and I know that the IFA is thinking about this issue, and their land is assessed against them when they go in for the duration of their stay there, it could mean that they could lose the entire farm. These people could be bachelors or they could have family. They might want to keep the farm in the family name. If somebody had transferred their property to somebody else four and a half years ago and they need to go into a nursing home today, one would think that in six months time when the five-year period is up, the land will no longer be assessable but no, if the five-year period is not up, it is assessable for the duration of their stay in a nursing home. I urge the Minister of State to look at the plight of farmers in respect of this issue. If the farm was assessed on the same basis as the house for a three-year period, that would be very acceptable to all concerned.

I totally agree with some of Senator Mary Ann O'Brien's remarks about elderly people or anybody trying to access services on the telephone and being told to dial one for this and two and three for the other. I made one such telephone call today and eventually gave up. I suggest that there be dedicated telephone lines for elderly people relating to the services they need. It can be clear that if one gives the Department of Social Protection one's PPS number, it knows what age you are. There should be dedicated telephone lines for people over the age of 66 where it is vital that somebody answers the telephone because what elderly people have to go through is a nonsense.