Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank her for being here for this important debate. I wish to be associated with the words of commendation to her and her availability. When we meet the Minister of State on her travels, we cannot but be impressed by her warmth, understanding, competency and awareness of the issues pertaining to the nursing home sector. I say this as a former Chair of the Committee on Health. I do not come here to give the Minister of State false praise, but it is an important sector.

As Senator Mullen correctly said, the sector is about the people that we care for and love. It is about our neighbours, friends and family and ensuring that people's needs are met in the best place possible, which is in community or home settings where they can be looked after. This debate is important. We also welcome the fact that €1.4 billion from fair deal has been allocated to the nursing home sector.

The backdrop, according to Nursing Homes Ireland and Tadhg Daly, is that we have an emerging crisis. We cannot ignore the elephant in the room, namely that 16 nursing homes, comprising 500 beds, have closed. To be fair to Minister of State, she is not ignoring that and has been battling very hard for the sector.

I hope we can listen to the sector in the context of the fact that we have an ageing demographic. People are being cared for at home and in the community. Our acute hospitals - Senator Gavan will speak about Limerick and I will speak about Cork - are jam-packed. That has to be considered in the context of this debate. I hope, as Senator Dooley said, that the logjam between Nursing Homes Ireland and the Department can be brokered. We have a very good Minister of State who can broker that. She does not have an approach of hiding behind the door. She is has a very commonsense approach.

We have an issue with funding and closures. The Department policy must and should be about ensuring we work with everybody to ensure we have a nursing home sector that is fit for purpose. I asked for this debate on the Order of Business. It is an important debate. I hope we can have a rolling debate on nursing homes because they are an important part of the fabric of our care system and our older and ageing population.