Safeguards will be put in place by the State to ensure elderly people who receive refunds of nursing home charges illegally deducted from their pensions cannot be exploited by "unscrupulous" persons. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports
Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney made the announcement yesterday as she published details of how an estimated €1 billion will be refunded to those illegally charged. The charging went on for nearly 30 years even though the Department of Health was aware the practice was questionable.
Ms Harney said elderly people due refunds for care in public nursing homes or contracted beds in private nursing homes had been receiving an amazing number of visits in recent times from relatives they did not even know existed.
For this reason legislation drafted to underpin the refunds scheme would include safeguards to prevent recipients being exploited.
Refunds will be paid with interest to anyone illegally charged who is still alive, regardless of how many years they spent in care. Refunds could amount to up to €6,000 for each year in care.
And in a move likely to be challenged in the courts, Ms Harney said the Government had decided to apply the statute of limitations in respect of refunds to the estates of deceased persons who were illegally charged, including deceased persons who were of unsound mind.
This means only the estates of those who died in the six years from December 9th, 1998, to December 9th, 2004, will have the charges repaid in full.
Solicitors representing people illegally charged in earlier years indicated last night that they may challenge the decision to apply the statute. Cork solicitor Colm Burke said he had obtained the advice of senior counsel to the effect that the statute could not be applied in respect of a mistaken law.
He could not say whether he would challenge the Minister's decision, however, until the legislation underpinning it is drafted.
Meanwhile, Dublin solicitor Bryan Fox predicted the State would have great difficulty relying on the statute.
He claimed the statute would only apply once people became aware of their right to reclaim the charges, which was only recently.
He said it was "likely" he would mount a legal challenge to the application of the statute on behalf of several clients.
Ms Harney said the advice of the Attorney General was that the statute could be applied but at the end of the day it was a matter for the courts.
A balance had to be struck in the interest of taxpayers, she added.
More than 10,000 people have already registered for refunds with the Health Service Executive.
Applications for refunds in some cases will be complicated by the absence of records in some long-stay institutions.
A private company is to be contracted to help the HSE handle claims and Ms Harney warned it was a criminal offence to make fraudulent claims.
She said attempts would be made to seek out and repay all those alive and entitled to refunds as quickly as possible. However, relatives of deceased persons entitled to refunds will have to go after rebates themselves.
Ms Harney said that in some cases she expected relatives to waive their right to a repayment on the basis that their relatives were well looked after while in care.
"My advice would be if you can afford it, if you don't need it, maybe you would consider it, but I'm not going to lecture people," she said.