I welcome the Minister. This is my first time to meet him in the House since his appointment and already he is making an impact on the Department of Social Welfare. I thought he would be the one to disentangle the difficulties in the Department, that he would introduce co-ordination and I am glad that he has already set about ensuring a streamlined social welfare service.
I put this matter down for the Adjournment debate because elderly people are affected and I know the Minister shares my concern that elderly people would not be under stress at the end of their days. It has come to my attention that because of the lack of geriatric beds in public hospitals a significant number of elderly people are being forced into private nursing homes. By and large these people are in receipt, of old age pensions amounting to £60 or £65 a week. Fees in nursing homes are in the region of £120 a week so there is a gap between what they receive and the amount demanded of them in private nursing homes.
I have a number of cases on file which suggest that elderly people in nursing homes pay their way by spending any savings they have put by. In the country especially, old people had a habit of putting money aside for their funeral expenses and they now find that this money is required to maintain themselves in nursing homes. There may be no wage earner in the families of some of these elderly people and family members endeavour to meet the equivalent of a mortgage repayment of £50 or £60 a week from unemployment assistance. This is an unfair encumbrance on necessitous people.
In my motion I have homed in on the supplementary welfare allowance. The Oireachtas passed the Nursing Homes Bill which in my view indicates an intention and a desire on the part of Government to ensure that funding is made available for elderly people who are obliged to live in nursing homes. Unfortunately to date funding for nursing homes that qualify under the regulations has not been made available.
Supplementary welfare allowance, within the social welfare system is seen as an allowance that bridges a gap, that caters for what we term "emerging needs". If an employed person with a mortgage to pay loses his or her job and payment of the mortgage becomes difficult, a supplement is often made available to make up the shortfall. If somebody, through unforeseen circumstances, falls into other payment arrears, a supplementary allowance may be made available. If somebody cannot obtain a public authority house, then a supplementary welfare allowance may be made available to ensure that they have a roof over their heads.
I raised this matter at Southern Health Board level with the programme manager for community care who considered that according to the guidelines issued by the Department of Social Welfare this aspect of care for the elderly was not covered under the terms and regulations pertaining to supplementary welfare allowance. I would like the Minister to take a look at this emerging need. None of us wants to see elderly people end their days under major stress and funds are a worry to them. They like to pay their way; they hate to leave debts behind them and they hate in particular to be an encumbrance on their families.
The Minister may say that many of these people and their families can well afford to pay and I concede that. There is, however, a small group in dire need of assistance and I ask him to look at the regulations, to regard this as a major emerging need and to extend the provisions of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme so that assistance can be given to elderly people in need.
