John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)

This is the caring and sharing Government. The reply referred to people who died before 9 December and said that no payment would be made in those cases. If the individuals concerned died on or after this date, a payment would be made. If somebody died on 8 December, the €2,000 would not be paid. A number of people contacted my office about not getting the €2,000 due to the death occurring on 8 December.

The Minister referred to the statute bar. If this is the opinion when dealing with the €2,000 compensation, I am most concerned. I hope the 500 beds allocated to nursing homes to alleviate the crisis in accident and emergency services under the intermediate health plan are being allocated on a geographical basis. Is this the case or are the 500 beds being allocated to Dublin and Cork and not to the areas of most need? This issue has been discussed over the last few weeks so perhaps the Tánaiste would clarify that point.

According to the Supreme Court ruling, the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2001, amending section 45 of the Health Act 1970, had the effect of placing beyond doubt any question of the legality of charging for the relevant services. It provided that a person who is not less than 70 years of age and is ordinarily resident in the State shall have full eligibility for the service. This was accepted by the then Attorney General and current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy McDowell. On 1 July 2001, there was no possible room for doubt that the health boards were not entitled to impose any charge for inpatient services on persons aged 70 years or over.

While many in this category would not previously have qualified for full eligibility, a significant number obviously did. Thus, from the entry into force of that provision, all persons aged 70 years or more were automatically and by that fact alone deemed to be fully eligible. Therefore, any charge imposed on such person was indisputably imposed in direct contravention of the Act, yet it was confirmed to the court that the practice continued. It is, of course, the admitted purpose of the Bill to render lawful what was thus unlawful.

There was ambiguity about it until 2001 but the 2001 Act conferred an entitlement on everybody over the age of 70 years. It is astonishing that the Attorney General's advice was so wrong. This was brought to the attention of the then Minister, Deputy Martin. Mr. Travers will show this in his report.

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