Illegal nursing charges - Fair-minded compensation scheme vital

THE intriguing possibility that politicians along with public officials stand accused of “maladministration” in the scandal of illegal nursing home charges, raises serious questions over the handling of this affair by Government ministers.

The inescapable implication of the veiled hint by Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney is that politicians will be fingered in the Travers report, which is due on her desk today.

In particular, the reference could be taken as a negative reflection on former Health Minister Micheál Martin, who has since moved to the Department of Enterprise and Employment.

Up to now, he has effectively washed his hands of any blame, insisting he did not know department officials had a report saying the practice of deducting nursing home charges from elderly people was illegal. Crucially, the minister claims he had arrived late for a meeting at which the matter was discussed.

The mind-boggling implication of this is that Junior Minister Ivor Callely, who held responsibility for the elderly, and who was also at the meeting, failed to bring the vexed issue of illegal charges to Mr Martin’s notice.

It is not clear if either minister will be named and shamed by the impending report, or whether its comments will be of a more generalised nature.

Whatever the explanation, there seems little doubt that politicians will also be blamed, and rightly so, for “systematic maladministration” in the Department of Health.

The question arises whether the Tánaiste’s remarks are part of a damage limitation exercise, aimed at drawing the sting from the report before it comes into the public domain, or whether the as yet unnamed politicians are being hung out to dry?

Of one thing we can be sure, however, and it is that whoever is to blame will be penalised in any meaningful way for bungling which could yet cost the taxpayer over e1 billion.

Ultimately, according to Ms Harney, as many as 300,000 people could be due compensation for the unlawful confiscation of money for nursing home fees.

What the average person finds unacceptable is that despite being told the practice was illegal, the Government went on dipping its hands into the pockets of pensioners for years.

And when this daylight robbery was finally exposed, the Coalition sought to legitimatise what had been going on by introducing retrospective legislation in a bid to make it legal.

Thankfully, that blatant move to justify naked exploitation of pensioners was roundly condemned and rejected out of hand by the Supreme Court.

Adding insult to injury, after stealing money from some of the most vulnerable people in society, the State then attempted to buy them off with a paltry compensation offer of €2,000 each.

With claims for illegal charges increasing by hundreds on a daily basis, the 300,000 figure remains a guesstimate. But the fact that Ms Harney puts the estimate at 100,000 more than the previous figure, means the final bill facing taxpayers could be much higher than originally anticipated.

After all the bungling and duplicity, there is an onus on the Government to move swiftly and bring forward a fair-minded compensation scheme.

It would be a travesty of justice if the statute of limitations was invoked to limit the fallout to a six-year period. Because, when all is said and done, it was the State that took unfair advantage of elderly people, unlawfully compelling them to hand over their meagre pensions.