Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. It is good to see her. This can be an emotive topic but it is an important one. I fully agree with the sentiments of Senator Dooley in regard to his reappointment. I wish him well in that regard. Hopefully it will work out well.

Of course, the ambition is always to care for loved ones at home. We should as a society be doing everything we can to ensure that as many people as possible are cared for at home for as long as possible. However, that is not always the case. If it was not for private nursing homes stepping in, many people would not receive the type of care they need. There is no doubt about that. The fair deal scheme is generally fair to the families who benefit from it but it is reasonable to say that what the private nursing homes get under the scheme needs to be looked at. I know the Minister of State is committed to looking at the financial models supporting private nursing homes.

As I said, fair deal is a fair scheme but there are circumstances in which it lacks flexibility. I dealt with a case recently where a family farm had not been signed over in the required five-year period. It had only been done two-and-a-half years before and the payment the family received under fair deal was very small. There was no flexibility shown. Unfortunately, when older people are reticent or slow about signing over a farm time catches up with them. When the family then applies to the fair deal scheme they are challenged as a result. I would like a review of the scheme to provide for flexibility to deal with particular circumstances and accommodate people.

The nursing home sector stepped up to the plate during Covid-19. It was a challenging and difficult time for everybody but particularly for people running nursing homes. Most of the staff were out self-isolating because of Covid-19. Nursing homes did a very good job, by and large. International comparisons show we did very well here. I heard the owner of Marymount Care Centre on the radio with Tadhg Daly a couple of weeks ago.The challenges are immense. Senator Currie regularly speaks to the owners of the Marymount nursing home in Lucan because they are neighbours of ours. There are a lot of challenges and it is important that we ensure the financial structures supporting our nursing homes are sustainable.