Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. I am heartened by it and I hope the Bill will be drafted before the of the year and enacted speedily. There will be people who have loved ones entering nursing homes today. What will the position be if the legislation is introduced in mid-2019? How will it affect someone who has applied for the fair deal scheme today? I welcome the Minister of State's comments on any model which encourages people, in the phrase he used, to live behind their own front doors. I look forward to the conference and the publication of whatever report emerges from it. It is the way forward. It is a much cheaper and more cost-effective for the Exchequer to keep people in their own homes. I appreciate that sometimes people have no choice but to go to a nursing home and that we are very fortunate to have them. However, where possible, the priority should be to keep people behind their own front doors, in the Minister of State's words.