Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill 2021: Second Stage (Resumed) Dail Éireann — 2021-05-19 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cavan-Monaghan I welcome this amendment to the nursing homes support scheme. I am happy to support it and it is long overdue. For years, many families with small farms or businesses have been charged 7.5% of the value of the farm or business to pay for nursing home care. It is draining those farms and businesses and making them unviable. I am happy to see the 7.5% will be capped to three years. However, I believe it will not be retrospective, which is quite unfair because of the length of time it has taken this Bill to come to the Houses of the Oireachtas. Many families have been waiting for this, as has been discussed, over a number of years but nothing was done. It is better late than never but some repayment or reduction in fees should be considered for those who have been paying since 2018. There is an overemphasis by the HSE on nursing home care for elderly people. There are other options. The HSE has indicated that under Sláintecare it will invest more in providing home-based supported living for elderly people. I welcome that but at the moment not enough is being done in that quarter. I know of several people who would be able to live in their own homes and be much happier there but the home support packages are not available. There would be a saving for the State and, more importantly, people would be able to continue living in and contributing to their community. Recently I raised as a Topical Issue matter the upgrading of boarding out regulations. I also raised that issue with the Minister personally and with the Department. It is a much more cost-effective form of care for elderly people based in the community. It suits people who cannot or do not want to live alone but do not require nursing home care. It and other options need to be looked at as there is far too much emphasis on nursing home care. Many people being discharged from hospital are directed towards living in a nursing home instead of looking at what other options might suit them. It may be the most suitable option for many, but it is not for all. The programme for Government contains a commitment to reform the nursing homes support scheme to incentivise renting out vacant properties and encouraging vacant accommodation to be brought back into active use. It is disappointing it is not being followed through in this Bill. There was potential to free up approximately 9,000 properties if it had been included in the Bill. We are in the middle of a housing emergency and that would have been a most welcome move. That is unfortunate but I welcome the amendment as it is. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-05-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:18+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-05-19