Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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624. To ask the Minister for Health what measures are being implemented to rectify the situation where nursing homes prior to the fair deal scheme were mischarging residents; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32390/23]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The Health Repayment Scheme was a statutory scheme established under the Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 to repay specified pre-2005 charges for in-patient services imposed on certain persons with full medical card eligibility in public long stay facilities, including public nursing homes. As the Scheme closed to new applications on 31 December 2007 in accordance with the provisions of the Act, no new applications can be made under the Scheme.

To date, the HSE has processed almost 35,500 claims under the Scheme and has issued repayments of approximately €453 million to over 20,300 claimants.

Upon the raising of issues earlier this year about how the State has approached legal challenges taken againstit in relation to pre-2005 legacy nursing home charges, the Government moved quickly to establish the facts surrounding these issues, which go back many decades, by requesting the Attorney General to prepare a Report on the litigation management strategy. This comprehensive Report was published on 7 February 2023 and may be accessed at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/22adc-attorney-generals-report-on-nursing-home-charges-and-disabled-persons-maintenance-allowance/.

As committed in February, the Minister is considering the Attorney General’s report and briefing prepared by the Department further and hopes to revert to Government shortly.