Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State is very welcome. I thank her for taking time out of her busy schedule to be here this morning to discuss the nursing homes support scheme. Calls for the overhaul of the fair deal scheme have been made for a long time. Many people have been calling for a new scheme which would ease the crippling burden that is currently on small farm families and small businesses. As the Minister of State is aware, there is a 7.5% deduction of assets year on year, capped at three years, when it comes to a family home but, unfortunately, when it comes to a small farm or small business, no such cap exists. That is causing serious problems for many people. In effect, if someone were to spend ten years in a nursing home, 75% of the asset would have to be paid to the State at the relevant time. That is causing serious problems for many small farm families and many small businesses. Many family members may work on the farm or in the small business.If, as is the case in some instances, the asset has to be sold to defray the costs, then those people have to move on, their livelihoods are gone and a farm or business that may have been in the family for years is lost. I know from the Minister of State's time in opposition that this issue was close to her heart and she was keen to see movement on it. I hope she will be the Minister of State who finally adjusts the scheme to make it fairer for small farm holdings and small business so that a similar three-year cap could be applied to those assets as is applied to the family home, which would make it more workable for those people.

This issue has been around for a long time and many people have campaigned to get the fair deal scheme adjusted to accommodate this, no more so than the farm organisations, who have done great work over the years. I would welcome the Minister of State's thoughts on that.

I also ask for her thoughts on a fair deal-type scheme for home support and home care packages for elderly people. Most people, if they had their wish, would like to live their days behind their own front door. That is not possible in some cases but if we had a properly beefed-up home care package, funded by way of a fair deal-type scheme, more people would be in a position to stay in their homes, with their families and in the communities they know and love so well for longer. I would welcome the Minister of State's thoughts on that issue as well.

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue. He is correct that it is something I have spoken about and worked on very hard over the past few years. Since I entered office, we have been working hard on this.

The nursing homes support scheme, NHSS, commonly referred to as fair deal, is a system of financial support for people who require long-term residential care. Participants contribute to the cost of their care according to their means while the State pays the balance of the cost. The scheme aims to ensure that long-term nursing home care is accessible and affordable for everyone and that people are cared for in the most appropriate settings. The fair deal scheme has been in operation for more than ten years and has supported many thousands of older people through what can be a particularly vulnerable time in their lives. The current average wait time on the placement list is four weeks. This is in line with the commitment made in the HSE's national service plan and has been maintained throughout the year. The funding allocated to the NHSS of €1.07 billion for 2020 is considered to be sufficient to maintain the waiting list at target levels until the end of the year.

While recognising that there will still be a need for nursing home care, the Government is making significant efforts to reduce the number of NHSS users through increased investment in community rehabilitation beds and home care, including an additional 5 million hours in budget 2021. The scheme works on the basis that the State will support people who need financial assistance to enter residential care when they need to and that those who have more, pay more, and those who have less, pay less. The Government believes that the principles of affordability and accessibility that underpin the scheme continue to be valid and may be even more so in these extremely challenging times.

The scheme has been reviewed by many different interested parties, including, most recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General. While many recommendations have been made both about the operation and the administration of the scheme, there is broad agreement that the scheme operates well and continues to be subject to appropriate financial assessment where it is required.

However, it is recognised that the Act in its current form does not place caps on the financial assessment of family farms or family businesses. As the Senator pointed out, this has proven difficult for farm families and small businesses. The 7.5% cap that applies for three years if somebody has a residential home does not apply in the case of small businesses and farmers and it has proven difficult. This places an onerous burden on successors and could challenge the future viability of the family farm. The Department of Health has proposed, therefore, a policy change to the scheme, to cap contributions based on farm and business assets at three years where a family successor commits to working the productive asset. This change has been approved by Government. The Department of Health developed draft heads of the Bill while considering a number of complex ancillary policy and operational matters that may need to be addressed in the proposed legislation. The stated policy objective of the general scheme is to introduce further safeguards in the scheme to protect the viability and sustainability of family farms and businesses that will be passed down to the next generation of the family to continue to work them as productive assets to provide for them their livelihood.

We come to the crux of the matter. The general scheme was sent to the relevant joint committee and the Department participated in pre-legislative scrutiny on 13 November 2019. Unfortunately, a report was not published before the dissolution of the previous Dáil. In the interim, of course, it was necessary to divert resources towards the immediate and pressing challenges of Covid-19. I had a meeting last week with departmental officials and the Department has been in touch with the clerk to the Business Committee on the procedural issues relating to pre-legislative scrutiny. I have also written to the Ceann Comhairle on this matter so that the legislation can progress as quickly as possible. There has been ongoing and active engagement with the Office of the Attorney General on the legislative development process and progress is advancing. The Government intends to bring forward legislation to the Houses as soon as possible. This legislation will seek to safeguard the sustainability of family farms and businesses for future generations.

To recap briefly, the pre-legislative scrutiny was being conducted last year. The report had not been finalised before the Dáil fell. Oireachtas committees have been back up and running for the past two months but there are various pressures on different committees. I have written to the Ceann Comhairle to see if we can waive the need for the pre-legislative scrutiny report in order I can move the legislation through the Dáil and the Seanad. The scrutiny can then be done at Committee Stage. That is where we are at the moment but I am hopeful of moving it in the first quarter of 2021.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for that. That is positive and I do not doubt her sincerity and commitment to sorting this issue out as soon as practically possible. Did she hope to have this invoked by the second quarter of 2021?

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I hope to move it in the first quarter.

Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail)
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That is great news. Will the Minister of State make a brief comment on the fair deal-type scheme for home care packages going forward?

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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I hope to introduce the legislation in the first quarter of 2021 and I believe it will be well-received across both Houses and by all Members.

Our plan is to deliver a statutory home care scheme by 2022. A couple of key enablers have to be put in place first. The first is the single assessment tool, interRAI, which provides an assessment of the person that needs to enter home care or nursing home care. Currently, the assessments vary from county to county. We will roll out a pilot programme early next year across four different areas in the country. By the end of 2021, we will have a statutory assessment of need for everybody throughout the country. I have secured funding for 128 assessors and that will be rolled out by the end of next year. We have also received funding to put in place an IT system to support this. Those are the two key enablers and I hope the scheme will be up and running by 2022.