Nursing home scheme fees reach €11m

THE private consortium hired by the state to run the nursing home repayments scheme has been paid €7.7m in fees this year.

Fine Gael TD Michael Ring last night claimed it was another example of a waste of taxpayers’ money, saying the Department of Health should have been able to manage the scheme.

The Health Service Executive, which has overall responsibility for the issue, hired the consortium, which comprises accountancy firm KPMG and law firm McCann Fitzgerald, in 2006 to administer the scheme and process applications.