A major initiative, including new grants and tax measures, to encourage older people to be cared for in their own homes rather than in residential institutions is to be introduced by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney,write Martin Wall & Carl O'Brien.
Among the issues expected to be included in the package, which will be set out in the forthcoming Book of Estimates and in the Budget in December, will be reductions in stamp duty for older people seeking to buy more suitable accommodation.
Sources said last night that the initiative would seek to remove any State disincentives to older people remaining at home.
For example, they said older people seeking to move to a single-storey premises now had to pay stamp duty on the new house.
There is also to be a major increase in State-provided home-care packages which would include nursing, therapeutic and other support services for older people in their homes.
The package will also see a significant increase in the income and asset thresholds for qualification for State subvention for nursing home care.
The Tánaiste confirmed yesterday that she was working on a package of measures which would be announced this year.
"A key priority must be to support people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible. Up to now the options have often been institutional care or nothing."
She said home help, such as meals on wheels or day-care, would be made available on a more comprehensive basis. However, there would not be universal eligibility for the new services, and they would be means-tested and based on levels of dependency.
The Government is also expected to look at new ways of involving the private sector in residential care.
Previous proposals put forward by former minister for health Micheál Martin for the provision of 850 community nursing home places under a public/private partnership would appear to have been shelved following concerns raised by the Department of Finance on the implications of such a development on the health service employment ceiling.
Ms Harney said yesterday: "We must stop thinking of residential care as the first option when people need long-term care."
She said long-term residential care would always be required, but many older people with lower levels of dependency could be cared for in their communities.
"Less than 28 per cent of residents in long-stay beds are in the low to medium categories. This represents over 5,000 people, and I find it difficult to believe that many of these could not have been cared for at home if the right level of supports were in place."