Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the past five years, there has been an increase of 13% in the cost of public nursing homes, despite the fact that it costs €1,700 per week per bed at the moment. The argument is that they look after people with dementia but so does the private sector. The private sector has had a 1.75% increase in those five years. If one takes the logic of my colleague's point this morning, the cost of the private nursing home sector to the taxpayer is approximately €1 billion per annum, for 23,000 beds at €850 per week per bed. Taking on board what Senator Gavan said, this would go to €2 billion per annum. He might outline to the House in due course where he proposes to collect that extra €1 billion.