Harney a 'fan' of home care for elderly

Minister for Health Mary Harney said she was a strong fan of care in the home and community for the elderly.

"It is the wish of the majority of older people to remain in their own homes, or certainly in their own communities, for as long as they wish," she added.

"Many of the long-term care issues must deal with housing-related issues as well. The traditional family home in urban environments is not conducive to somebody who has become partially disabled."

Ms Harney said she had recently met some people from the United Kingdom who were involved in the planning of new housing developments, not specifically for elderly people, but which will incorporate adaptation more easily than the traditional home.

Ms Harney was speaking during the debate on the concluding stages of the Health (Amendment) Bill. The Bill, which passed all stages, provides for the charging of residents of public nursing homes of up to 80 per cent of their pensions for long-term care. It also provides for the introduction of the doctor-only medical cards for 200,000 people on low incomes.

Ms Harney said the State had an ageing population and each year 12,000 more people reached the age of 65 years and 1,500 more people reached the age of 80 years.

"Over the next 20 years, with expected trends, the demographic profile of our population will change quite dramatically.

"Clearly, immigration will play a part in perhaps addressing some of the imbalance, but there will be a lot more older people."

Ms Harney said the Government was anxious to bring some certainty to the issues involved.

"Many of the strategies have dealt with these, but I suppose because of other pressures, we have not been able to resolve some of the outstanding problems in this area, mainly the financing ones," she added.

She said that a group of officials would report back by the summer "so we can bring finality and certainty to this issue from a policy perspective".