Govt will pay pensioners back, says Tánaiste

Minister for Health Mary Harney today admitted the Government would have to pay substantial compensation to pensioners and their relatives for illegal taking money from them to pay for nursing care.

The Supreme Court today ruled that a health bill which tried to retrospectively legislate for the charges was unconstitutional.

The Tánaiste, whose department rushed the bill through the Dáil before Christmas, said she would now have to find a way to pay back hundreds of millions of euro to tens of thousands of people.

She said: “Clearly we have to pay substantial compensation. It’s going to take time to put in place a mechanism to pay that money back. We certainly will pay it back.”

Tánaiste Harney appointed a civil servant, John Travers, to carry out a report into how the scandal occurred and why it was allowed to go on since the 1970s.