Harney brings nursing home Bill to Dáil

LONG-AWAITED legislation to provide for a "fair sharing" of the cost of nursing-home care has been introduced in the Dáil by Minister for Health Mary Harney.

The "fair deal" legislation provides for upfront State funding of nursing-home care, with costs recouped from the estate of a resident after their death.

Under the legislation a maximum of 80 per cent of a State pension is deducted from residents, along with a proportion of assets above €36,000. The State then claims from the estate of a resident, after their death, up to a maximum of 15 per cent of the value of their home.

Ms Harney said: "Today we are bringing order to what has been a mess. We are making fair what has been unfair. We are making consistent what has been haphazard. We are making sure what has been in doubt. What has been unsettling will be reassuring. What has been unclear will be clear. What has been unpredictable will be predictable."

Fine Gael health spokesman Dr James Reilly said: "I would love to believe all that but my past experience of Bills in this House, and past experience on initiatives and so-called reform, is that they have been anything but clear and anything but sure." He was "very concerned about the resource capping" and said that if there was a finite sum available from the State, "it could well transpire to be an economic assessment on which a medical assessment is based".

Dr Reilly expressed concerned that care needs might be decided on price alone and not locality.

A constituent in Rush, Co Dublin, was assessed for nursinghome care and was told there was a bed available for him in Portlaoise. "This is a decision to allow this gentleman to go and wither on the vine 50 miles away from his family, friends and relatives."

Labour health spokeswoman Jan O'Sullivan warned that there were aspects of the Bill her party could not support. "There is an incentive in the legislation to reduce the number of public beds, to make fewer available in future and to depend on the private sector. The Labour Party fundamentally disagrees with this view, whether in respect of co-located hospitals, home care packages or whatever."

The removal of automatic entitlement to universal healthcare meant that "people who need long-term residential care will be treated differently from the rest of the population, and most of those people will be senior citizens," she said.

"The Minister said today that this only represents one in 20 of the population. Why should that one person in 20 be treated differently from everybody else?"

Thomas Byrne (FF, Meath East) said "under the new scheme people will only have to pay what they can afford and this is very important".

People "will not be forced to sell their homes to pay for care under this Bill, contrary to what has been said during this debate".