Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take Senator Craughwell's point. I am making a more general argument about the way we are "processing" older people and that is the word for it in the sense that we will not consider having the fair deal scheme applying to the home in the same way that it operates in care settings but it would be helpful if could start there. In the Senator's case, it was not a practical option for his mother. Sometimes the decision is made. I have aged parents and there is nothing that teaches one as quickly and as well as the human being in front of one as to how one should proceed. It is a more general look at how we should treat older people. We all talk about the dignity of protecting finances, bodily dignity and the dignity of the self but people want to reside in their homes. This is not the only legislation in which it sought to bring this about, we are trying to do it from a community, social and health point of view. If I was standing in the next election for the Government, it would be an issue on which I would be standing, that people would have the right to stay in their home where it is practical and where it is medically and psychologically feasible. I understand the Senator's point but I was talking about it as a generality and I believe that is the way we should be going. We should be looking at the home as the best place. I understand also that if the fair deal scheme applied in the home, the Senator might not have had to make the financial gift he had to make every week for care.