Political motive behind change of heart on nursing home repayments

IT is difficult not to be amused by the Government publicity campaign detailing the health repayment scheme which has been established in the wake of the nursing home charges scandal last year.

The website set up to inform the public about the scheme is adorned with pictures of elderly people enjoying a happy retirement with their grandchildren.

“It’s your money”, declares Marian Finucane on the radio ads. The scheme is being portrayed as a unilateral act of generosity by a benevolent Government.

Fianna Fáil and the PDs must think people have very short memories. Less than a year ago they tried to introduce legislation that would have retrospectively legalised the systematic theft of money from elderly people over the course of 30 years.

Far from considering it our money, the Government wanted its ill-gotten gains to remain in public coffers, until the Supreme Court slapped them down, describing their position as an unjust attack on the rights of the most vulnerable members of society.

So what has changed in the meantime? We are now a lot closer to a general election.

But I’m sure the Government would never engage in such an enormous U-turn purely for electoral gain. Now would they?

Barry Walsh

Brookfield Hall

Castletroy

Limerick