Maria Byrne (Fine Gael)

One last thing I wish to discuss is the fair deal system. While it works for many, Nursing Homes Ireland found from surveying its members that their costs had gone up 36% but their income levels had only increased by a small amount, some by less than half of that. While I am not saying prices should go up, we have to try to support nursing homes to keep them accessible to all so that people can afford to go to them, given how we do not have enough public beds. We need to move to a model of nursing home care where every person can live with dignity and autonomy and where they and their families can be assured of a great quality of life into the future.