Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would also like to be associated with the expression of sympathies to the families of the three people who died in the past few days. They suffered a tragic loss. It is important to commend all the work done in the past 72 hours, at national level down to local community level, where people put their shoulder to the wheel to ensure those people who had to travel could travel safely. The situation was very carefully managed.

I join with Senator Mullen in raising concerns about stamp duty. There are two sides to this and one of them relates to the need to ensure good planning is carried out in respect of farm transfers. There was not a huge disincentive in respect of transferring at an earlier stage and that has to be changed but there are difficulties and a number of issues need to be resolved. The issues around the transfer of assets and elderly care need to be looked at more carefully and we need to get a lot more information out there.

Recently, I came across a situation where a person who is being admitted to a nursing home has not transferred land and there has been no long-term planning. As a result of a medical condition, the person in question cannot now make any decisions. On Friday, I was with an elderly retirement group whose attitude was that they wanted to continue to live in their own homes for as long as possible.We need to get out a great deal more information on long-term planning and elderly care because we are not doing enough. We also need to address the question of enduring powers of attorney and other issues on which we are also not getting out enough information. It is something we need to do. We need to plan in order that the maximum number of people can stay in their homes for as long as possible.