Mr. Ger Deering:

We tend to get more complaints about the extra payments that people make. The fair deal is set out so there is not much we can do around its terms because it is a scheme and it is set out. We sometimes get complaints about where people get charged for services. Sometimes they are actually charged for services they cannot even avail of. We say to people to be really careful when going into a nursing home, to look at the contract and see what does that state and what is the nursing home entitled to charge in terms of extra payments. We deal with that. I am aware of a case where a person was discharged from a hospital, went into the nursing home and nobody told the person there was a charge. The person went from a public hospital and presumed themselves to be in the public system still. In fact, they were not. They had been admitted to a private nursing home. Neither the family nor the individual was told until, after some time, they received a bill for €32,000. We engaged with the nursing home in that case and we got that written off because we took the view that it is unreasonable, if the person has not been told and did not know there was going to be a charge, to come back with a bill after that length of time. It would be more of that kind of thing than the actual fair deal scheme itself.