Dan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 150: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of nursing home places, public and private, available in each county for 2007; her plans to extend such places; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17711/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Service Executive has advised my Department that there were 18,500 private nursing beds and 10,153 public beds in 2006. As part of the overall investment package for the development of services for older people, the DOHC and the HSE have prioritised the delivery of additional public continuing care beds through the development of community nursing units in large urban centres in both Dublin and Cork together with the expansion and the development of additional facilities across all regions. The HSE proposes to expand public capacity by 397 beds in 2007 and by 408 in 2008. The running costs in full year of this additional public capacity will be €42m.

In 2006, the HSE contracted a total of 1,050 extra beds in the private nursing home sector. A total of €28 million is being allocated to cover the full year cost in 2007 of these beds. In addition, the HSE is planning to contract a further 360 beds in 2007 at a cost of €12 million. 220 of these will be procured in the Greater Dublin area, 100 will be procured in HSE South and 40 in HSE West.

Operational responsibility for the management and delivery of health and personal social services was assigned to the Health Service Executive under the Health Act 2004. Therefore, the Executive is the appropriate body to consider the specific information requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of nursing home places available in 2007. My Department has requested the Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Executive to arrange to have the matter investigated and to have a reply issued directly to the Deputy.