Call for emergency funds to help nursing home scheme

THE Government has been urged to use emergency funding to shore up the state’s nursing home support scheme, under which no new applicants have been approved for nursing home care in almost two weeks.

Last night, lobby group Age Action said the Fair Deal funding crisis was causing “untold stress” to some of society’s “sickest and frailest” because they could not get a nursing home bed, despite statements by the Government that the scheme was open for business while a review of Fair Deal is under way.

“Age Action accepts that there is a need for the scheme to be reviewed, but emergency funding is necessary to enable the scheme continue while this review is ongoing,” spokesman Eamon Timmins said.