The statute of limitations will not be applied in the issue of illegal nursing home charges to anyone living or anyone who died in the past six years, Minister for Health, Mary Harney stressed on the eve of presenting a memorandum to Cabinet on the issue.
Ms Harney said the six-year statute of limitations would only be applied in certain conditions to estates of deceased people who had been obliged to pay the illegal nursing home charges.
"We are only contemplating the statute of limitations subject to certain conditions for estates, nobody left alive nor anybody who died in the past six years will be affected by the statute of limitations," said Ms Harney.
She said she will be bringing a memorandum on the issue to Cabinet today in which she will again highlight the need for outside expertise to assist with the processing of claims. "We're hoping to get some outside expertise, because we've never done such a big logistical exercise as this in Ireland before."
The contract for processing such claims would have to be put out to tender. The memorandum outlines the current position relating to proposals for the scheme, how the statute of limitations will be applied, and what further measures are needed before the scheme can come into full operation.
Ms Harney was speaking in Cork where she officially opened the new €10.8 million emergency department at Cork University Hospital. "It's the only level-one trauma centre in the country that can deal with neurological, cardiovascular, orthopaedic and plastic surgery, so it has a range of surgical specialities and no other site in the country has that range," she said.
"It's appropriate that a facility that has that status should have a modern accident and emergency department and it can cater for up to 50,000 patients a year, in addition to about 12,000 opthalmic cases as well."