Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State. I want touch on a number of points in regard to the nursing home support scheme, which is a very important scheme. We all have people coming to us who are going into nursing homes. It is a very traumatic time for the families and the individuals themselves. The nursing home support section in Limerick does fantastic work and we all deal with such people on a daily basis. I compliment them on the work they do on the ground.

I have two issues. As the Minister of State knows, if the scheme involves someone who has a home of their own, who has an old age pension and no other assets, it is relatively straightforward. Some 80% of their income is retained and, depending on the circumstances with the home, 7.5% of the value of assets per annum for three years.Issues have arisen in more recent times, particularly in respect of farms and of people who continue to live at home in some cases when it is not really suitable. Many such people are very elderly and live in isolated areas. I welcome this initiative on the part of the Minister of State and the fact that he is currently looking at it with the Attorney General. I hope we will get full details of the smoke emanating and of the particular details around budget time. I expect we will. It is very much an issue for both farmers and small business. In many cases with farms there are issues around land and defined property. It is the same in the small business sector. These changes will bring a lot of relief to many people.

I welcome the fact that the home care scheme is being put on a statutory footing. I note the points Senator Colm Burke has made. If people want to remain in their homes, everything possible should be done to ensure they can remain in their homes. When we look at the home care scheme itself, we must factor in the carers, what they do and what they bring to the table. In many cases the work of carers it is very emotionally draining. They are looking after family members. In many cases the work goes on around the clock. It is the evolution of primary care to its purest form and that is where home care schemes come in. In my experience, the private home care providers with which I have dealt are doing a very good job. They have their own internal standards and, in the main, they are very good. Typically, with the home care scheme, the providers have local people working for them - both men and women. Therefore, when the carers come in to look after elderly people, in many cases the elderly person will know the carer. That is to be commended. It is something which should be fostered.

We need to look at whether we can put in place a scheme similar to the fair deal scheme in the area of home care, which would tick the boxes in that way. We have an aging population and dependency rates are increasing. In my experience, most people want to live at home but for many people, the infrastructure is not there. We should develop a home care scheme which works off the structure of the fair deal scheme, which is more formally called the nursing homes support scheme. It is the way to go. The Minister of State ran a consultation scheme, which finished yesterday. Will the Minister of State indicate when he anticipates the findings of that consultation will be published and when he expects to set about putting in place a statutory, formal home care scheme in which people will know that they have the same level of certainty they have with the fair deal scheme?