Nursing home scheme fees reach €11m
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.
Figures released by Health Minister Mary Harney to Mr Ring show that the consortium has been paid €11.147m since it was first hired — €1.118m in 2006, €2.274m in 2007 and €7.755m so far this year.
Mr Ring claimed the Government had effectively wasted €11m because there had been no need to outsource the work.
However, Ms Harney said it was the HSE’s belief that outsourcing the work was the cheapest way of running the scheme.
“The HSE has advised that the reason it was deemed necessary for the work to be outsourced was to secure the most economically advantageous business solution for the HSE.”
The scheme was set up in August 2006 after it emerged that more than 300,000 people were illegally charged for nursing home care between 1976 and 2004.
However, the Government placed strict parameters on those eligible for refunds so as to contain the cost of the scheme to the state. It was decided repayments would be made only to those still alive and to the estates of patients who died after December 9, 1998. The deadline for applications was last December, by which time circa 36,000 people had sought repayments.
According to the most recent figures from the consortium, a total of 17,700 applicants have been offered repayments to date while 13,800 have been rejected.
Of that 17,700 offers made, some 13,300 were accepted with more than €274m being paid out. The other 5,000 offers were rejected by the applicants involved, who indicated they would appeal the size of the sum being offered.
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