Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senators for raising this important issue and giving me the opportunity to update the House on the proposed reform of the nursing home support scheme, commonly known as the fair deal scheme. As they will know from working with me over recent years, this matter is close to my heart.

The House will be aware that the fair deal scheme is a system of financial support for those in need of long-term nursing home care. It aims to ensure that such care is accessible to and affordable by everyone and that people are cared for in the most appropriate settings. The scheme was introduced in 2009 and is built on the premise of fairness and equity, but there are always some unintended consequences. Unfortunately, those have affected farmers and small business owners whose loved ones have been in nursing homes for in excess of three years.

Participants in the scheme contribute to the cost of their care according to their means while the State pays the balance of the cost. The less one has, the less one pays and the more one has, the more one pays. That is fair. Under the scheme, the capital value of an individual's principal private residence is only included in the financial assessment for the first three years of his or her time in care. During my work on the legislation, it was interesting to note that, as of November 2020, the average length of stay was 3.3 years but that 37% of all persons in the scheme left it within six months of entry. That said, we want to make the scheme as fair as possible for those who are in nursing homes in excess of three years so that they can afford to stay there.

It is recognised that the scheme in its current form does not place caps on the financial assessment of family-owned and operated farms or businesses when calculating the means to pay for nursing home care. Under existing provisions, caps only apply in cases of sudden illness or disability. I well appreciate that this may place a potentially onerous burden on family successors and could challenge the future viability of these productive assets. The imminent legislative amendment to the scheme seeks to address this issue by introducing additional safeguards in the scheme to protect further the viability and sustainability of family farms and businesses that will be passed down to the next generation of the family.

The change to the scheme proposed by the Department of Health is to cap financial contributions based on farm and business assets at three years where a family successor commits to working the productive asset. This change was approved by the Government and underwent pre-legislative scrutiny in the previous Dáil. Unfortunately, progress on the development of the Bill was negatively impacted by the dissolution of that Dáil and the Covid-19 pandemic. The response to the pandemic has been and continues to be a national and public health priority. When I was appointed last July, though, this matter was one of the priorities that I wanted to progress as quickly as possible. I thank the Attorney General for all his support in that regard. A team was put in place in my office last November or December to work on this issue. We have finally come to a conclusion, which is welcome. Officials in my Department and draftspersons in the Office of the Attorney General have been working intensively.I am pleased to say a finalised draft of the Bill has now been signed by the Attorney General. I am sure Senators will appreciate several steps must be completed before the Bill is laid before the House, including its approval by the Government. I expect to bring the Bill to the Cabinet in the next two weeks. It has now been circulated to the Departments and it must be with them for ten working days. It was circulated last Thursday. I intend to have it before the Cabinet in two weeks and I hope it will be approved. It will then come before the Houses very quickly. I have spoken to the Government Chief Whip to ensure it can be facilitated and I would like to hope and encourage everybody to support it. I believe there will be great cross-party support and it is very badly needed.