Yesterday, the Government announced cutbacks of €440 million in public services. At the press conference, neither the Taoiseach nor the Minister for Finance would give any breakdown of these cutbacks. We now know why. They were ashamed to set them out. The figures produced by the Government show that one third of the cutbacks — that is €1 in every €3 because of the Government's economic mismanagement — will come from the health budget. Specifically, they will come from moneys set aside to assist thousands of families in catering for elderly family members in nursing homes. What the Government has done is sacrilegious.

The promises made to help families with the high cost of nursing home care have been abandoned. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and Children will claim this matter concerns legislation and legal difficulties. The elderly and their families who need this assistance cannot afford to put legislation on hold because of legal difficulties in the same way as the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health and Children can. They cannot afford to put their lives on hold because they need immediate attention. Families must make decisions to sell family homes to meet the costs of nursing home care. The sop of the €12 million allocated for nursing home subventions is only to salve the Taoiseach's conscience.

Thousands on the streets may not understand all the details of the consequences of Fianna Fáil's economic mismanagement. However, they know for sure the Government is taking money away from the health budget, particularly the €110 million earmarked for the care and assistance of elderly people in nursing homes. Before this blows up in the Taoiseach's face, will he not see the value of increasing nursing home subventions, as Deputy Reilly has pointed out on so many occasions? Will he not leave the moneys for the purpose for which they were allocated under a policy decision?

The €110 million earmarked for elderly people and their nursing home care is abandoned. A sop has been given out of it with the rest going back into the maw of a heartless Exchequer. Will the Taoiseach show some sense of humanity in this matter? Will he put the moneys into nursing home subventions for those who require them? What he has done is heartless, sacrilegious and he must reverse the decision.

Hear, hear.

The fair deal scheme can only come into place when there is a proper legal footing for it. Dealing with people who have diminished mental capacity is a legally challenging area. The Attorney General is drafting legislation which will be sufficiently rigorous to address the matter.

This is a deferral of the introduction of the scheme. It can only come into place when legislation is in place. In the meantime, the Minister for Health and Children is providing for an enhanced provision of €12 million to deal with the nursing home subvention issue. It is unlikely the nursing home Bill will be published until the next session. Its enactment will be around the end of the financial year.

Over €500 million of extra resources have been allocated for care for the elderly. It is not an area we have been remiss upon. The fair deal scheme is an effort to bring about a uniform level of care and a proper legal basis for the provision of nursing home care. Due to the challenging nature of the legislation, we have not been able to enact it thus far. On the basis that the funds will not be used this year, we are in a position to defer it until the enactment of the legislation. In the meantime, the enhanced level of nursing home subvention will assist the situation.

Let the old suffer.

This goes back to the old slogan of "Health Cuts Hurt the Old, the Sick and the Handicapped." The people understand the Taoiseach is cutting back moneys allocated under a policy decision to help elderly people with nursing home charges. This morning many are concerned for elderly family members who might fall and break a limb, thus requiring nursing home care. These people may have to sell the family home to pay for that care. It does not matter to them that the Government has not been able to draft legislation.

Before Christmas, the Minister for Health and Children told the House she wanted nursing home legislation put through in three days. Since then there have been umpteen questions in the House on the state of the legislation with the same answer that it will be produced the following week. It will be 18 months before the Minister can introduce the legislation. Meanwhile, those people who need nursing home care now cannot put their lives on hold.

Out of the €110 million allocated, €85 million will go back into the maw of the Exchequer with only €12 million as a sop for increased subventions. Then there is the irony of an announcement of an extra 200 contract beds yesterday. The Minister's press release stated: "Sanction has now been received from the Department of Finance for the spending of €13 million from the fair deal provision of €110 million on 200 extra contract beds." That was announced last January. It is just a reheated announcement.

They were not delivered.

This Fianna Fáil-led Government, for all its bluster, has been unable to introduce legislation to deal with the fair deal provision. It is allowing thousands of elderly people to suffer in indignity.

It is putting pressure on families to sell their homes when for all his failures the Taoiseach could have used the €110 million for the purpose for which it was designed — either by increased subventions or as an allocation towards care for the elderly. He has failed miserably in this area of the €440 million cutbacks. What he has done is politically sacrilegious and he is condemned for that.

I ask the Taoiseach to reverse this decision before it gets out of hand. Bring back that €110 million. He has taken one in three of the €440 million in cutbacks from the health area, which he proclaimed had not been subject to any cuts and in fact, was exempt, by comparison with other Departments. The evidence is here, nonetheless, and he should be ashamed and have some conscience as regards what is going on, and reverse this decision. Deputy Cowen, as Taoiseach, is supposed to be in charge of the Government. He should leave this money intact in line with the decision that was taken and put it into care for the elderly because they are watching this and listening in their thousands. They now know that Fianna Fáil has directed that €85 million of the €100 million should be withdrawn. Elderly people will suffer as a consequence of this political decision. I ask the Taoiseach to reverse it.

Hear, hear.

I point out to Deputy Kenny that 80% of day to day expenditure is in the areas of health, education and social welfare. However, economies have to be made and moneys must be reallocated, while keeping the overall spending limit for this year at what we intended. Because of the deteriorating economic situation, where we have increased allocations to provide in areas over and above what was projected, money must be reallocated from within the overall Government spend.

The critique from Fine Gael was that we were not doing sufficient in this area. The bottom line is that this must be dealt with in a way that will seek to minimise the impact on frontline services. That is what we will seek to do. The whole purpose of these proposals is to minimise the impact. As regards this specific allocation, the money was ringfenced for this purpose. This specific purpose cannot come into operation for practically the whole of this financial year. Therefore that allocation is not required in present circumstances.

It is required for care for the elderly.

It is overdue.

One minute it is legal and the next minute it is fiscal.

Let the Taoiseach finish, please.

They are still there.

If I may be allowed——

There is only so much listening, we can do.

The problem is that the Deputy never listens.

I am prepared to listen to reason, but not rubbish.

The Deputy is not the leader of his party yet. The situation is——

He has hit the disabled. He has hit those with mental illness, who cannot speak up, and that is why we are here today talking to the Taoiseach. That is not an answer.

The Ceann Comhairle will have to do something.

Deputy Reilly should be aware that this is Leaders' Questions. Surely I do not have to remind him of that. Nobody is allowed to intervene, other than the leaders.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle. As regards the whole question of contract beds, some 2,000 have been put into the system within the last three years, in addition to increased home services. More money will be spent on services for the elderly this year than in previous years. However, as regards this specific initiative, which will not come into play this year because of the enactment required in order to make it operable, that money will not now be used — so, it is a deferral. In the meantime, other initiatives for the elderly, which have totalled €500,000 in the last three years, will continue to be provided as part of the base, to enhance the service. We acknowledge it would be better if this could be brought in sooner. That was our hope, but the legal difficulties must be overcome in the first instance.

The subvention system was introduced in 1993, at a time when the whole house could have been taken under original regulations. We are trying to regularise all that now and have a proportionate response which meets the requirements of the situation. It is not possible to talk about economies on the scale of €440 million and suggest that health, education and social welfare can be exempt from the process, given that €4 out of every €5 of day to day expenditure——

That is what he said yesterday — that they were exempt.

No, he did not.

No, I did not. The Deputy is good at claiming that he is paraphrasing me, while misquoting me. I made it very clear in my statement that we are seeking to minimise the impact on frontline services.

He said they were exempt.

I did not say that. I said, in relation to the 3% payroll——

I am not going to take any more lectures from the Taoiseach.

If the Deputy is not prepared to read and understand what is going on, that is his problem.

I am well able to read, and the Taoiseach can try to shout everybody down, if he wants——

The 3% payroll bill relates across all Departments and State agencies, with the exception of health and education whose parameters——

The Taoiseach said they were exempt.

Let the Taoiseach finish.

Let me say what was said, because this is what I did say. The parameters will be decided on the basis of discussion with the Department of Finance. That is what I said and what the record will show. No amount of effort by the Deputy to misrepresent me will disprove that point.

The Taoiseach's fair deal has turned out to be a raw deal.