Nursing Homes
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-09
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Marie Sherlock (LAB), Dublin Central

Obviously, there are a whole range of issues as to why people do not leave hospital. Almost 70% of the cases relate to a need for residential care or complex care such as dementia. The big issue is the cost. We know the HSE is running a significant deficit at the moment. It will not even make the savings it is supposed to make at the end of this year. We know the cost of an acute daybed is about €1,300, which is almost five times the cost of a community nursing unit bed. This has a very real financial implication for hospitals. The question being asked of me is about the tolerance and particularly the very long average waiting times across our acute hospitals. We need to see a much greater urgency with regard to a nursing home capacity plan, which would be a public nursing home capacity plan.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:07+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-09