Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask that we have a debate with the Minister for Health in the context of private nursing homes. They are at a crisis stage at this point in terms recruiting staff but even more so in terms of retaining staff. Many members of their staff go to work for the HSE and have left them in the past number of years. They have struggled to replace them and this is for a variety of reasons, cost being one.

People who do not understand the private nursing home system ask why we do not just pay them more money, but they have a cap on how much they can charge people who are coming into a nursing home. They are limited in what they can do. We have a crazy situation whereby people who would have worked in private nursing homes were not able to avail of the Covid-19 payment that people who work in the public health sector received. Yet, if they move into HSE role, on top of having a higher salary, they can get the €1,000 payment because worked throughout Covid-19 and because they are now in HSE system they can receive the payment. This is another attraction to leave nursing homes and to go to work for the HSE. This is a real issue. I have spoken to a number of nursing homes that are at their wits' end in terms of trying to maintain staff and recruit staff.

We, as a Government, are prioritising childcare. We have new system in place for capping the price of childcare, for increasing payments for people who work in that sector and for supporting businesses to maintain themselves. We need to do something similar for private nursing homes in order to make sure that they can maintain the quality service they provide, which is really important in local areas such as that in which I live in Tipperary, and that people who want to work in the sector are not being drawn away to work for the HSE.