The Government is planning to rush through controversial legislation on financing nursing home care before Christmas.
A Nursing Homes Support Bill, known as the "fair deal" on nursing home care, is due to be published on Thursday, the day after the Budget.
The new system, which will replace the current nursing home subvention scheme, will include levying charges on the estates of older people after their death.
With just five sitting days left in the Oireachtas after next week, and with increasing signs that the Opposition will oppose attempts to rush through the Bill, the Government will be under severe pressure to get the legislation enacted. A coalition of groups representing older people, health professionals and social workers, also opposes plans to pass the legislation quickly.
Under the scheme, which is optional, those in need of nursing home care will pay a maximum of 80 per cent of their disposable income towards their nursing home costs, while the State will pay the balance. An extra deferred contribution of up to 15 per cent of the value of their home and other assets may be due after the person's death.
For the spouse of the older person in care and certain dependants living at home, the charge will be deferred during their lifetime.
Currently, the Government funds 90 per cent of the cost of care in public nursing homes, with individuals asked for 80 per cent of their pension. However, most people in private nursing homes have to fund much of their care, as nursing home subvention falls well short of the overall cost.
Government sources say the new plan for financing nursing home care will replace the subvention system from next January. If the legislation is delayed, they say the new system will be backdated to January 2008.
What is already clear, however, is that significant elements of the "fair deal" package will not be in place for several months.
The plan envisages that only nursing homes that had been approved by the new health standards agency, the Health Information and Quality Authority, would be entitled to participate in the scheme.
However, it is understood that the authority will not be ready to begin approving nursing homes until next summer.
Another element of the "fair deal" package is that the National Treatment Purchase Fund will negotiate the cost of beds with nursing home owners. However, it is likely to take time to make deals with an estimated 450 private nursing home providers.
The nine groups which have united to oppose the rushed bill say the failure to debate it properly in the Oireachtas may lead to defective legislation.
They also point out that there is a major review under way in the Department of Health on eligibility for all health services. In such circumstances it says a "vulnerable and relatively voiceless group of people in need of nursing home care should not be used as a stalking horse for eligibility changes in healthcare".
The group - which includes Age Action Ireland and the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation - says that while the new system will offer relief to people in private nursing homes, it represents an "erosion of the entitlement to State-funded long-term care in public nursing homes".
It said: "While in a democratic society, debate on healthcare funding must be open and vigorous, there are particular concerns on what appears to be a selective inheritance tax on stroke and dementia. No other form of public healthcare currently involves a charge after death."