Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I wish to raise two issues on the Order of Business. The Minister is obviously aware of the Sea-Fisheries and Maritime Jurisdiction Bill 2005 and the controversy arising therefrom which has been highlighted by Deputy Perry and a number of other Deputies, including members of the Fianna Fáil Party, for a number of weeks. The Minister wrote to the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. In his letter he stated a small group of fishermen have deliberately flouted the law and made considerable sums of money. This is the Legislature. We cannot stand by law breakers but the rush to legislation, and the rows therein, will only deal with issues for the future. What action is being taken in respect of his public comment that he is aware a small number deliberately flouted the law and made considerable sums of money or is there an attempt here to make the legislation retrospective in some way and that the existing legislation is incapable of dealing with the scale of allegations of charges against some persons which, I understand, involve moneys as high as three figure sums in the millions?

May I raise this matter with the Minister in respect of forthcoming legislation? Just a year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that taking charges off pensioners staying in public long-stay beds was an unjust attack by the State. It ruled that health boards had no right to charge for inpatient services. On 11 May last year the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, announced that all those who were illegally charged and are alive, and the estates of all of those who were charged and died in the six years prior to 9 December 2004, would have those charges repaid in full.

I was informed yesterday of a claim made by a family whose late mother had been charged fees in a public nursing home and that the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, the HSE and the Attorney General have lodged a full defence. In that defence the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and her co-defendants deny any liability. They deny the illegality of charges and deny that any moneys were taken. They deny the entitlements to restitution. The statements made by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and her co-defendants are utterly at odds with the Supreme Court ruling and the Government's stated policy of repaying illegally taken fees. Applying to himself and his Government what the Taoiseach correctly stated, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and the Government cannot have it both ways. It cannot make one announcement in public and another to the court. I want to know from the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, and from the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children why this dishonest defence has been put up. I want her to come into the House next week to explain — if the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, cannot do so for her — why this position has been adopted by Government when the Supreme Court was crystal clear in its verdict and crystal clear on what the Legislature had to do, and when it is equally crystal clear that the Government has denied all liability, denied any illegality, denied that moneys were taken and denied entitlement to restitution.

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