Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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The NHSS, commonly referred to as ‘Fair Deal’, is a system of financial support for people who require long-term residential care. Participants contribute to the cost of their care according to their means, while the State pays the balance of the cost. 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 NHSS covers the cost of the standard components of long-term residential care which are:

- Nursing and personal care appropriate to the level of care needs of the person

- Bed and board

- Basic aids and appliances necessary to assist a person with the activities of daily living

- Laundry service

There are items and services that are outside of the scheme – for example, social activities, hairdressing, and newspapers, as well as certain therapies that fall outside standard nursing and personal care. A person's eligibility for other schemes, such as the medical card scheme or the drugs payment scheme, is unaffected by participation in the NHSS or residence in a nursing home. In determining the services covered by the NHSS it was considered very important that the care recipient and the taxpayer would be protected and would not end up paying for the same services twice. For this reason, medications and aids that are already prescribed for individuals under an existing scheme are not included in the services covered by the NHSS, as this would involve effectively paying twice for the same service.

Funding is therefore not specifically allocated to private and voluntary nursing homes through the nursing home support scheme for health promotion, fitness or well-being outside of the core services covered by the scheme.

I will refer your question to the HSE in case they are able to provide any further information with respect to funding for services in these areas that are delivered in nursing homes.