Nursing Homes Ireland warns of ‘disappearing commitments’ as Sláintecare 2025+ overlooks nursing home care

Monday May 19, 2025

“NHI AGM to focus on the continued lack of prioritisation for nursing homes in health policy”

Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI) has expressed serious concern that the Government’s newly published (13^th May 2025) Sláintecare 2025+ plan fails to appropriately address the future of nursing home care. Despite the sector’s essential role in providing care to over 32,000 older people in local communities nationwide, the plan offers no clear policy vision for long-term residential care, representing a significant gap in the Government’s universal healthcare ambitions. Compounding this is the continued absence of the publication and implementation of the Review of Pricing of the Nursing Home Support Scheme (Fair Deal), a Programme for Government commitment for early 2025, which is critical to ensuring Fair Deal funding reflects the actual cost of delivering care.

While welcoming Sláintecare’s overarching aims to improve access, integration, and quality, NHI CEO Tadhg Daly expressed serious concern that the plan makes little meaningful reference to the future of nursing home care. This lack of focus risks further marginalising a sector that is central to supporting older people with complex needs.

NHI’s concerns about the continued marginalisation of nursing home care within national healthcare planning will be a key focus of its upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday 20th May. Of particular concern is the disappearance of key commitments to the sector, notably the promised policy paper on the future direction and financial sustainability of nursing home care. While the Sláintecare 2022 Progress Report acknowledged this work was delayed, it has since vanished entirely from Sláintecare 2025+. This reflects a worrying trend of diminishing policy accountability at a time when older people’s care needs are becoming more complex and urgent.

“Sláintecare’s promise of the right care, in the right place, at the right time must acknowledge that, for thousands of older people, a nursing home is the right place,” said Tadhg Daly, CEO of Nursing Homes Ireland. “While the focus on supporting people to live at home is clear in the foundations of Sláintecare, it must be matched with equal attention to the sustainability of nursing home care. This latest update offers no vision for the long-term residential care that so many will require. Recognising the full continuum of care, including long-term residential care, is essential to meeting the needs of Ireland’s ageing population.”

NHI stressed that nursing home care and home care are not competing services but essential, complementary parts of the same care continuum. Both are vital to meeting the diverse and evolving needs of Ireland’s ageing population. A balanced approach is required to ensure that older people can access care in the most appropriate setting, whether that be in their own home or in a nursing home.

NHI also reiterated concern over the stalled policy paper on the future direction and financial sustainability of nursing home care, which has now vanished from Sláintecare planning. The Sláintecare 2022 Progress Report, published in March 2023, explicitly acknowledged the delay in developing this paper, stating:

“Scoping work has commenced on the development of this paper; however this project is now paused. Immediate sustainability concerns must be addressed as a priority therefore resources have been reallocated accordingly. Any measures to address nursing home closures and other reductions in capacity in the short term will involve consideration of impacts on long-term sustainability.”

Nursing Homes Ireland has written to Minister Carroll MacNeill, seeking a meeting to discuss these concerns directly. NHI has proposed to facilitate a visit to a nursing home in the Ministers constituency, providing an opportunity to see first-hand the challenges faced and explore how the sector can be more effectively supported within the Sláintecare framework.

“It is vital that Government fulfils its commitment to deliver the policy paper on the future direction and financial sustainability of nursing home care. These omissions are not minor oversights. They reflect a lack of strategic planning for a sector that is central to supporting the complex care needs of Irelands ageing population. We need to celebrate our ageing demographic with more than aspirations; we need urgent, ambitious policy with fully resourced plans to ensure sustainability.”

“Nursing home care in local communities nationwide is essential to achieving the Sláintecare ambition putting people at the centre of the health system and developing primary and community health services,

“Nursing homes are a vital pillar of Ireland’s healthcare system. For Sláintecare to succeed, nursing home care must be given the recognition and planning consideration required,” Mr Daly concluded.