Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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697. To ask the Minister for Health the way he plans to address the funding discrimination being applied in the resourcing of nursing home residential care under the fair deal scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16178/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Health acknowledges that there are variations in the cost of care across public centres as well as across private nursing homes, with public nursing homes generally having a higher cost of care. Regardless of whether it is a private, voluntary or public nursing home, the resident's financial contribution is the same; the price of care only affects levels of state funding and has no direct impact on the resident.

In December 2021, the Department published the independently-chaired Value For Money review on nursing home costs, which reviewed the variance in costs between public and private nursing homes. The review made 9 recommendations to address this issue, all of which are now being taken forward by the Department.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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698. To ask the Minister for Health the steps that are being taken to provide equivalent pay conditions for staff providing equivalent care in the nursing home sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16179/22]

Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is in the process of developing a statutory scheme for the financing and regulation of home-support in line with the Programme for Government (2020) which commits to the introduction of a scheme to support people to live in their own homes by providing equitable access to high-quality regulated home care.

In parallel with this, a Cross-Departmental Strategic Workforce Advisory Group has been established. The role of the group is to examine the strategic workforce challenges in front-line carer roles in the home and nursing homes. Areas to be examined include recruitment, retention, skills development and sustainable employment of carers into the future.

I opened this Groups inaugural meeting on 3rd March, where the Terms of Reference were agreed. These are available on the Department’s website.

The Group will progress a structured programme of ongoing consultative engagements with stakeholders to further explore and define the issues, listen to stakeholder views, and identify approaches to respond to the strategic workforce challenges.

The Group will also provide a forum for agreement on strategic approaches to address the workforce challenges in the sector and develop a report for my consideration outlining the Group’s key findings, recommendations, and a proposed action plan to support implementation of these recommendations to include periodic monitoring of progress.

In 2021, the National Skills Bulletin produced by the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU) in SOLAS, presented an overview of the Irish Labour market in relation to care workers. It reports that employment numbers fell over a 5 year period, particularly over the previous year (most likely due to Covid). There is also a high proportion of care workers aged 55 yrs and older (24%) which could affect replacement demand.

The continuing reopening of the economy and the labour market should help ease the labour shortages in the health care sector.

Please also know a large proportion of staff who work in the healthcare industry are employed by private companies and as such do not fall under the remit of Department of Health or its agencies. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on their terms and conditions or contracts of employment.