Health (Nursing Homes) Bill
Mr. Gormley: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. We are taking it on the advice of the Attorney General and previously we relied on, as the Minister of State mentioned, the 1993 Nursing Home (Subvention) Regulations under section 7 of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act 1990. It is time we revisited this area not only because of the revelation of conditions in Leas Cross, which opened our eyes and the eyes of many people to the terrible conditions in some of our nursing homes, to which I refer latter, but in the broader context of health care because it is clear that how we deal with our ageing population is crucial to the overall maintenance of our health service.
The analysis of consultants who attended a recent meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health and Children was that of course we need extra beds in the community - step-down beds, but they also clearly stated that society has changed in that we now have less time now for our children. We put them into child care and, by the same token, because we are busy we have less time for our ageing population and we put elderly people into nursing homes. Staying at home to care for one’s children is a thing of the past. Furthermore, people want to care for their elderly at home and that is an aspiration and ideal, but it is not possible, given the changes in our society. More and more people will go into nursing homes. Statistics reveal that people are living much longer and they will be spending far longer in nursing homes. That is simply a fact. We have the capability of keeping people alive for much longer.
Mr. S. Power: Will the Greens live longer than the rest of us?
Mr. Gormley: I certainly hope so. If we followed Green policies, we would have a far healthier society in general. Perhaps the Minister of State would agree with me on that. The consequence of that is people would live longer. Seán Barrett attended a meeting of the Joint Committee on Health and Children and spoke about this aspect in the context of Ireland. It is an interesting subject in that as many people emigrated from Ireland in the 1950s, we have fewer elderly people to look after at this stage. We have, in effect, what is known as a demographic bounce. The position could be could be far worse than it is.
I do not believe that Leas Cross was an isolated case. There are many instances I highlighted here previously, one being a nursing home in Cabra, which has since closed, where the conditions were appalling. Elderly people there were hungry, people who wanted extra food were given slices of bread which were prebuttered and it was as if these people were simply commodities. There has been a commodification of the health service. Based on the cases I have heard of, some of the elderly are treated with less dignity than that shown to the animals in Dublin Zoo. That is completely unacceptable. That is the reason we urgently require an inspectorate.
I agree with a point made by Deputy Twomey who said that certain sections of the Bill were quite difficult to understand in terms of how the HSE determines subvention applications. We need to examine this in greater detail on Committee Stage. There is a threshold of principal residence value above which subvention may be refused. The figure that is given is €500,000 for the Dublin area and €300,000 elsewhere. I live on a street in Ringsend, which is in Dublin 4 but is sometimes referred to as Dublin 4B because it is not part of the leafy suburbs. Even though it is not regarded as the wealthiest area in Dublin, cottages near where I live are being sold for approximately €450,000. It is a matter of time before small cottages in the Ringsend area are sold for €500,000. We need to examine this matter in the context of the property boom in Dublin because we will quickly find that people on very modest incomes are above the threshold for Dublin. The whole pattern of Irish society could be changed by developments of this nature. If one is forced to sell one’s house, the idea of inheritance - passing on one’s property to one’s kids - will disappear. The changes in society will place added pressure on people. Those who want to buy houses are under enormous pressure. This aspect of the Bill will need to be examined in greater detail on Committee Stage.
I will not say much else about the subject of this Bill, as I have spoken in previous debates about the conditions in nursing homes and I do not want to repeat myself. When the Minister of State, Deputy Seán Power, establishes the various task forces and review groups to which he referred in his speech, I hope he will take a long-term view of this issue, the consequences of which for society are profound.