Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

Many thousands of elderly people and their families are anxiously waiting for the Government's response to last week's Supreme Court decision which rejected its attempt to retrospectively deny people their legal rights. The net effect of the judgment, as the Tánaiste will be aware, is that tens of thousands of people were illegally charged over a prolonged period. Yesterday, the Minister for Finance promised this matter would be dealt with quickly and in a non-legalistic way.

Will the Tánaiste confirm that rather than deal with this issue quickly, the Cabinet, by setting up a sub-committee, has effectively kicked to touch on it? Will she confirm that there will be a statutorily based scheme to repay those who were illegally charged? When will it be established? Will the estates of deceased persons be refunded? Arising from the setting up of the Cabinet sub-committee today and in view of the fact thousands of people are very anxious to know about this matter, how are people expected to proceed with the lodging of claims or will they be contacted by the structure arising from the sub-committee? What level of proof and documentation will be required? When is it likely to emerge? Where will the contact point be for persons who were victims or the next-of-kin of those who were involved in the issuing of probate for estate? When can they expect this matter to be dealt with in a non-legalistic way?

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