Fair Deal crisis was flagged in April

THE emerging crisis in funding for nursing home care, which Health Minister Dr James Reilly said he learned of just last week, was flagged by Department of Health officials in an April briefing document prepared for him.

The document, published on April 1, said that while the Health Service Executive (HSE) was allocated €6 million in additional funding for the Fair Deal Programme in 2011, “it has now indicated that the additional funding has been fully utilised to deal with new applicants under the scheme” and that it was “at the point where it cannot accept any new applicants unless existing capacity becomes available”.

Two reports compiled by the HSE in January and February, and subsequently signed off by Department of Health officials, also flagged the funding problem.