The Health Minister says the operators of Beaumont Nursing Home in the city have behaved in a cynical way and says their actions have created a huge amount of anxiety among residents and their families.
Operators CareChoice told families that they would be forced to stop accepting Fair Deal scheme payments unless the funding from the National Treatment Purchase Fund was improved.
Management at CareChoice has previously told RedFM News that they tried numerous times to arrange meetings with the National Treatment Purchase Fund to discuss the matter before telling families about the situation.
Management have also approached the office of Tánaiste Micheál Martin and Minister for Older People Mary Butler to discuss the matter.
Family members of residents staged several protests outside the constituency offices of Micheál Martin, Simon Coveney and Michael McGrath to call for increased funding for the home.
Earlier this week, Nursing Homes Ireland warned that nursing homes across the country will be forced to close due to financial pressures.
They cited a PwC report which found rapidly rising costs were posing a threat for some homes.
Speaking to RedFM News, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says he doesn’t support the course of action that CareChoice have taken:
"The Fair Deal Scheme is is under review and, as I said, the rates that are being paid to different nursing homes are being increased. I don't believe that this nursing home has behaved in a particularly helpful way. I think they know exactly what they're doing. I think it's quite a cynical way for them to behave. I think there has been an awful lot of anxiety caused that quite frankly isn't being caused to residents in other nursing homes".
