Pádraig Rice (Cork South-Central, Social Democrats)
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1015. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline she is working towards in publishing the national treatment purchase fund review of the nursing home pricing system, given that the programme for Government commits to doing so in early 2025; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23285/25]

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Health published a review of the NTPF pricing system in June 2021 and continues to work on bringing forward the recommendations that emerged from this review.

A steering group has been established to oversee the delivery of the recommendations; this group has met on a regular basis since publication of the review. The group made four recommendations:

• Recommendation 1: formal assessment of using a formulaic approach in the pricing system as set out in Section 4 of the Report.

• Recommendation 2: formal assessment of amending the approach to the assessment of “Local Market Price” to reflect prices within other nursing homes within a certain distance of the nursing home rather than within the same county.

• Recommendation 3: NTPF to engage with nursing homes and their representatives in relation to enhancing the internal NTPF Review process.

• Recommendation 4: amending the process for allowing for high dependency residents when the necessary systems are in place

The delivery of recommendations 1-3 primarily sit with the NTPF, recommendation 4 sits with the Department of Health. As per the recommendations of the review, the NTPF is reporting periodically to the steering group on progress in implementing the recommendations.

The terms of reference for the group include a final report to be submitted to ministers, reporting on delivery of the four recommendations and making any further recommendations as appropriate. It is my understanding that this report is at an advanced stage but has not been provided to the Department of Health as yet.

A decision on the next steps and further action will be made following analysis and review of the report findings. Every effort will be made by the Department of Health to honour the Government's Programme for Government commitments.