Full refund call over 'illegal' care charges

Elderly people who were illegally charged for nursing home care should be fully refunded, it was claimed today.

Fine Gael said the Government was offering an ex-gratia payment of €2,000 to pensioners without establishing how much they were actually owed.

“This was an illegal charge and I think patients are entitled to get costs back,” said health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey.

He welcomed the decision of President Mary McAleese to convene a rare meeting of the Council of State to discuss the new legislation on nursing home charges.

Dr Twomey said the Health Amendment Act had been “railroaded” through the Dáil last week without any opportunity for detailed discussion.

“The Council of State may well decide to send it to Supreme Court and get it tested,” he told RTE radio.

The legislation means long-term residents of publicly funded nursing homes will have to pay up to 80% of their pensions towards their accommodation.

Health Minister Mary Harney introduced the Bill to legalise the charges on pensioners which will leave them with a minimum of €35 in pocket money if they come into force.

The Council of State, which has only been convened three times during Mrs McAleese’s time in office, is to meet tomorrow at Áras an Uachtaráin.

The President is entitled to call upon the body for “aid and counsel” under Article 26 of the Constitution.

The Article allows the President to refer any Bill to the Supreme Court for a “decision on the question as to whether such Bill or any specified provision or provisions of such Bills is or are repugnant to this Constitution or to any provision thereof”.

The members appointed by the President include Special Olympics chief executive Mary Davis, Enda Marren, a director of the Rehab group, Fianna Fáil Senator Martin Mansergh, and Col Harvey Bicker, former chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party’s Council.

Also on the body are Denis Moloney, who is professor of law at the University of Ulster, Anastasia Crickley, the chairwoman of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism, and a student, Daraine Mulvihill, who lost both her legs below the knee and all of her fingers after she contracted meningitis.