Page 54 of the programme for Government refers to a decisive shift in health services to primary care in the community. The issue was raised during Leaders' Questions this morning in terms of the need for more acute beds throughout the country. Some 1,600 in total are required, with 28 of those in Sligo University Hospital alone. The Social Welfare Bill provides an opportunity for Government to switch the responsibility for the carer's allowance to the Department of Health. Together with the relaxation of the means test, this may give more people the opportunity, with other supports such as medical cards, adaptation grants and so on, to have the dignity of being cared for in their own homes. It would also free up many of the acute beds throughout the country and would allow those with delayed discharges to move on. The answers during Leaders' Questions were high on rhetoric, as they always are, but light on tangibles. I would be grateful if the Government would consider my suggestion and relax the means test for the carer's allowance and transfer responsibility for it to the Department of Health. We could thereby afford people the opportunity and the dignity of being cared for in their own homes. It would also free up some of the pressures on the acute system.

From an expertise and functions point of view, the Department of Social Protection is best placed to process a payment that is made weekly and on which a large number of people depend. On primary care, as we speak, 92 primary care centres are now in operation throughout the State. A further 15 locations are under construction and a further 30 primary care centres are at an advanced stage.