Efforts to limit refunds a cynical ploy

SERIOUS inconsistencies arise from Tánaiste and Health Minister Mary Harney’s desire to invoke the statute of limitations with the aim of reducing the State’s huge compensation bill for illegal nursing home charges.

After all, as she has admitted, it was the State which for years ignored legal advice to stop pilfering funds from elderly people who were in long-term care in nursing homes and other institutions.

However, it seems the dead are fair game. According to Ms Harney, the strong advice of the Attorney General was that the statute could not be used against anyone who was of unsound mind at the time the charges were levied, or against anybody who is alive.