Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2024
773. Deputy Denis Naughten asked the Minister for Health when he will address the anomaly regarding the nursing home support scheme farm exemption which presently excludes the nearest living relative if the relationship is beyond a nephew; the reason for the delay in addressing this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10758/24]
View answerFair Deal was designed to protect and support vulnerable older people, to ensure equal access to nursing home care based on what they could afford. This gives certainty to people and families. Fair Deal is in place to support vulnerable older people at a time in their lives where full-time care is essential.
The Department of Health introduced the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Act 2021, which became operational in October 2021. As you are no doubt aware, this introduced a three-year cap on contributions from family farm and business assets, provided that a family successor is appointed to run the asset for at least 6 years and other conditions are met. The Act also extended the three-year cap to the proceeds of sale of a principal residence, which means that, from the fourth year in care onwards and provided the house was sold while the person is in care, a nursing home resident may sell their principal private residence without incurring additional costs.
Prior to the amendment becoming fully operational, it was recognised that the preceding iteration of the legislation did not place caps on the financial assessment of family owned and operated farms or businesses when calculating the means to pay for nursing home care. This placed a potentially onerous burden on family successors and could challenge the future viability of these productive assets.
Therefore, the Department of Health proposed a policy change to the Scheme, to cap contributions based on farm and business assets at three years where a family successor commits to working the productive asset. The stated policy objective of the legislation is to introduce additional safeguards in the Scheme to further protect the viability and sustainability of family farms and businesses that will be passed down to the next generation of the family to continue to work them as productive assets to provide for their livelihood.
Family Successor
The Department of Health is in the process of amending the Nursing Homes Support Scheme to broaden the definition who could act as the family successor. This would expand those eligible to act as family successor to cousins, great-nephews and great-nieces, and great-grandchildren of either the resident or their partner.
It is envisaged that this will retain the policy intention for family farms and businesses, whilst providing enough flexibility in the case that people will be in a situation where they would have no eligible family successor. It is worth noting that any family successor will also need to commit to follow the obligations as outlined under the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Act 2021.
You will appreciate that work within the Department is at an early stage. Drafting legislation can often be a complex and lengthy process, and we must ensure that this legislation, when enacted, not only fulfils the goals of this policy but is also entirely consistent with all other existing legislation, thus the Department is working with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel on the drafting of the Bill. It is expected that the Bill will be published soon.
I will be in contact with all representative farming and small business associations and other relevant stakeholders in respect of these legislative changes when it is feasible to do so.
