Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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130. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of increasing the number of nursing home beds to 3,800; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15106/16]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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131. To ask the Minister for Health the cost of increasing the number of home help and home care packages; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15107/16]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 130 and 131 together.

This Government is committed to enhancing the quality of life of older people, supporting them in their homes and communities and, when required, providing access to quality long-term residential care.

In 2016, the Health Service Executive has a core provision of €324m for home support. An additional €20m has also been allocated to maintain the increase in service levels during 2015 to 10.4 million home help hours, 15,450 home care packages, 130 intensive home care packages and 313 transitional care beds. In addition a further 60 clients with dementia will be supported with co-funding from The Atlantic Philanthropies under the national dementia strategy. The Programme for a Partnership Government commits to increasing funding for home care packages and home help year on year. I am pleased to say that yesterday’s announcement, by my colleague the Minister for Health, of the Government's approval of a revised health estimate includes funding for the winter initiative to address overcrowding in Emergency Departments and increased resources for home care.

The Nursing Homes Support Scheme, with a net budget of €940m is expected to support 23,450 clients on average per week, representing an increase of 649 clients per week on the 2015 outturn. The Programme for Government has committed to increased resources to maintain waiting times for funding approval at current levels.