Cabinet to introduce new nursing home legislation

The cabinet is believed to have agreed to try introduce new legislation designed to make it legal for the State to deduct nursing home fees from the pensions of elderly medical card holders.

The move, which will only apply into the future, follows a Supreme Court ruling last week that a previous Government attempt to retrospectively legalise such charges was unconstitutional.

The Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition had attempted to retrospectively legalise the charges in an effort to prevent compensation claims from nursing home residents who effectively had money stolen from them by the State since 1976.

The State is now facing a compensation bill of between €550m and €1bn because of the Supreme Court ruling.