THE ENTIRE value of small farms may be eaten up to cover the cost of nursing home care in future unless a Bill underpinning the new Fair Deal nursing homes support scheme is amended, it was claimed yesterday.

Galway East Fine Gael TD Paul Connaughton told the Oireachtas Health Committee that while the scheme allowed for part of the cost of nursing home care to be met by putting a charge of 5 per cent a year for three years on a person’s principal private residence, no such cap had been put on other non-liquid assets such as farms.

This meant, he said, that if a person remained in a nursing home for 10 years, they could be liable to pay up to 5 per cent of the value of their farm towards the cost of their care for each of those years.

If nursing home care cost €800 a week, then this person could end up having a €400,000 charge levelled against the farm over the decade they spent in care, he said, adding that the cost of a 40-acre farm, going on current prices, would be gone paying for it.

Not putting a three-year cap on the timeframe for levelling charges against the farm as well as the home, he said, was “a monumental mistake” which was “going to split families for generations”.

Limerick West Fine Gael TD Dan Neville said if a 50-year-old man got a stroke and had to go into a nursing home, having not signed his farm over to his son, then the 5 per cent per year charge would be levelled against his farm for as long as he lived in the nursing home.

Minister for Health Mary Harney said the State wanted to encourage the early transfer of assets to the next generation but said Mr Neville made a good point. She would examine the issue raised. “I don’t think it would be fair or reasonable that the whole farm could go.”

However, the Minister said nobody will pay more than the cost of their care under the scheme, adding that the average length of stay in a nursing home was two to three years.

Meanwhile, the committee heard that the Bill does not clarify what a person is entitled to once in a nursing home. But Ms Harney said new eligibility criteria were being devised as there was a lot of confusion between what people are entitled to and what people are eligible for. The Cabinet subcommittee on health will shortly consider them.