Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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54. To ask the Minister for Health the measures being taken to address the crisis in the provision of nursing home places under the fair deal scheme; and if measures will be taken to increase the number of publicly funded nursing home places. [8050/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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The budget for the Scheme in 2015 is €948.8m and is expected to fund 22,361 throughout the year. The budget for 2015 reflects an increase of €10m from the 2014 position. This increase of €10m is part of the initiative to tackle delayed discharges and has provided for an additional 300 long stay care places under the NHSS as well as reducing the wait time under the Scheme from 15 weeks to 11 weeks.

The review of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme which is currently in progress will include consideration of the balance between community and residential services as well as the future financing and sustainability of the Scheme. It is expected that the review will be completed by the end of this quarter after which it will be made publicly available.