Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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561. To ask the Minister for Health the number of public nursing homes by county; the number of private nursing homes by county; his plans for the development of further public nursing homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30315/20]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Information and Quality Authority is an independent authority established under the Health Act 2007. Since 2009 all nursing homes - public, voluntary and private have been registered and inspected by HIQA. A register of all nursing homes is available on the HIQA website www.hiqa.iewith a breakdown available per county.

The Government recognises that our ageing population will require the delivery of significant additional long-stay and step-down facilities. A comprehensive programme of investment in public nursing homes over the period 2016-2021 is well underway. The programme is aimed at maintaining the existing level of public bed provision and will also provide some additional capacity.

The National Development Plan provides capital funding over the next ten years for additional capacity requirements including 4,500 additional short-term and long-term beds across the public system in Community Nursing Units and other step-down facilities, as identified by the Health Service Capacity Review (2018).