Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

Litigation is pending in that regard. When this matter arose last December, I asked the assistant secretary of the Department, Mr. Smyth, to conduct an audit of the regulations which impose charges so that a legal opinion on their status could be acquired. That audit is under way and will be finalised as quickly as possible. We have been working extremely hard on it. Meetings will be held with officials from the Office of the Attorney General about many other regulations which have been made under various Acts.

Many people felt that all of this could have been dealt with in the entitlement and eligibility legislation. The Travers report acknowledges that an official in the Department drafted the heads of such a Bill, which I subsequently used here. As Mr. Travers states, that process was commenced but was then parked. The heads of the Bill were to be used in a further, wider Bill, rather than in a stand-alone Bill. I do not suggest that people were not worried about issues relating to entitlement and eligibility, but there was a view that such matters could be dealt with in the manner I have outlined.

The sad reality is that the principle has broad support. I doubt that many Members of the House do not support the principle that people should make a contribution towards their shelter and maintenance if they can afford to do so, just as people in the community do. The difficulty is that we did not have a legal basis for taking such contributions for 28 years.

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