Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I was fuming with anger when this came up last week, to the point where I demanded the Minister attend the House. The fact that the Minister of State has come in is a compromise. Has my anger diminished? No, it has not. In the Dáil last week, the Minister, Deputy Harris, said the doors would not close. He said St. Joseph's was a brilliant facility that needed to be supported and that it would be supported and remain open. That is not what the Minister of State said in his contribution today, however. He said the National Treatment Purchase Fund had statutory independence in the performance of its function so the Minister for Health should not have given that commitment last week. It has not been negotiated and funding has not been secured. We need to get away from soundbite politics that just push dementia further down the line, which is what has been happening for the past three years. The all-party group on dementia has raised dementia and Alzheimer's over and over again and the Minister of State has been buttonholed on the issue on several occasions in the past three years. We saw some movement on it in the budget but it was very small. It was fought for very hard by families whose loved ones suffer from dementia. In the media, we read that they have been told they may lose 120 day places and that the service for full-time care will be closed. Why would everybody not seethe with anger about this? The anger is still there because we are being fobbed off again and are not getting definite commitments from the Minister of State that St. Joseph's will stay open and that people suffering from dementia will be treated with respect.

I will remain angry until there are meaningful supports for patients suffering from dementia and their families. For the past three years they have not been treated well. The Department's report of 2015 stated that the fair deal scheme was not fit for purpose and that fees payable to high-dependency patients in nursing homes, meaning the likes of St. Joseph's, were not viable. We are two years past the implementation of that report and nothing has happened. I prefer to stay in the community as long as possible but the Minister was asked if people who are suffering from dementia and who have to go into nursing homes could be treated as having a terminal illness, like cancer, and get similar funding. Why is that not happening? According to the Minister for Finance, we are out of the fiscal crisis so why have reports commissioned by the Department not been implemented? Why has there not been a proper rolling out of services for people with dementia, rather than their families being told they could be turfed out and that they would have to find somewhere else for their loved ones?

I am not happy with the Minister of State's answer to this. Can he explain why the review system for nursing home prices under the nursing home support scheme are outstanding, four years after the report and two years after its implementation date? Are people scratching themselves in the Minister's Department? We are not seeing delivery though we are seeing report after report. We are running budget surpluses and the Taoiseach spoke of them with glee this morning, while we are leaving families to suffer. They are working and doing their best but they cannot launch political campaigns and regularly stand at the doors of Leinster House to demand a proper service for their loved ones, although they did this a couple of weeks ago. It is heartbreaking to see these family members having to organise protests for their loved ones to be looked after correctly, decently and with respect, while letters are sent to them telling them they are going to lose their services. The letters were issued in desperation because St. Joseph's cannot run a deficit of over €1 million, year after year. The hospital had a responsibility to say where it stood and it was criticised for doing so but it was wrong to do that and it was only another media soundbite.

I ask the Minister of State to use the same words to reassure me as his senior Minister used, by telling me the doors will not close. St. Joseph's is a brilliant facility that needs to be supported. I ask him to back up his senior Minister's soundbite because if he cannot do that, it shows it is only a soundbite and that is not good enough. We want it said loud and clearly. The Minister should tell me that, without any doubt, the doors will remain open and St. Joseph's will be supported. I ask him not to give me any of the bull about independent groups and reviews but to reassure me that what the Minister said in the Dáil is correct.