Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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409. To ask the Minister for Health his views that there is an over-reliance on nursing homes due to changes in payments and services for elderly persons living at home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25732/15]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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Government policy will continue to prioritise facilitating older people to remain in their own homes and communities for as long as possible, and ensuring that appropriate residential care is available when it is needed.

When the stage is reached where an older person can no longer remain at home, the State provides financial support through the Nursing Homes Support Scheme for those who need long-term residential care. 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 Scheme is currently the subject of a Review. This review is considering the Scheme’s long term sustainability as well as looking at how well the current model of provision is balancing residential care with care in the community, and whether this needs to be adjusted to better reflect what older people want.

While there will always be a need for long-term residential care, older people have consistently said that they want to be facilitated and supported to stay in their own homes and communities for as long as possible.

The HSE provides a range of community-based services aimed at ensuring older people receive safe, timely and appropriate care and treatment at the lowest level of complexity, and as close to home as possible. Services are provided on a prioritised basis based on a care needs assessment and availability of resources.

In its National Service Plan (NSP) for 2015 the HSE stated that it will continue to progress the strategic realignment of services to provide home care and community support services in order to maximise the potential of older people in their own homes and communities. The levels of home supports planned for in the NSP are: 10.3 million hours of home help service supporting 50,000 people - this is same level of service as 2014;13,800 people in receipt of a home care packages at any one time - this includes an additional 600 people supported under the delayed discharges initiative; 190 people in receipt of an intensive home care package at any one time - these packages were introduced for the first time in 2014 for people with more complex care needs.