Families of care home residents at centre of Fair Deal row to protest outside Tánaiste Micheál Martin’s office

 • 4h ago

Worried families of residents of a Cork nursing home which plans to pull out of the Fair Deal scheme unless payment rates are increased will protest outside the constituency offices of Tánaiste Micheál Martin today.

The families have warned that Government policy is akin to “putting vulnerable older people out on the street”.

The peaceful demonstration is a desperate attempt by the concerned families of residents in Beaumont Residential Care nursing home in the city to highlight the urgency of the crisis faced at the end of June when the facility will no longer accept Fair Deal rates and revert to private fees of around €1,300 a week.

The owners of the home, part of the CareChoice Group, said the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF) which negotiates rates was “refusing to deliver cost-of-living increases for our residents” and it is lower than the rate for other Cork nursing homes.

The home which is not closing, and has more than 70 residents, originally planned to withdraw from the scheme at the end of May but that has been pushed back another month in the hope of securing higher NTPF payments.

Elaine Dunne, whose father-in-law Patrick Murphy (99) is among the residents, said the Government policy is the equivalent of putting the most vulnerable older people who worked hard all their lives “out on the street”.

She said families will not be able to pay the private fees and “there are no other nursing home places in Cork”.

Mr Murphy, originally from Cobh, would not be able to cope with leaving what is now his home and it could seriously affect his health.

“All these people who worked hard to keep the country going are being so disrespected by Government,” she said.

Ms Dunne said no health officials or politicians had visited and met the “wonderful staff and residents”.

“Local TDs should be in there to work with the people and trying to find resolutions. The Government has billions and this is now urgent.”

The hope was the that HSE would fund the home directly in the interim and avoid private fees. Some 24 nursing homes have closed in the space of 18 months.

However, they were advised by Minister for Older People Mary Butler on May 23 that there is no mechanism for the HSE to fund Fair Deal in Beaumont.