Seán Ryan (Dublin North, Labour)

We are discussing the money not being paid. This is linked with an amendment I spoke on previously, and on which nobody seems to want to answer. On the one hand there are fraudulent payments, but I put it to the Minister of State that the State owes money to medical card holders who could not get into public nursing homes. I have asked the question time and again.

An elderly person who is entitled to care and attention, not only in a public hospital but in a public nursing home, may not have been able to get into such a facility. They would have had to borrow, along with their family, to get into nursing home facilities, the provision of which they should have been entitled to by the State. Those people are entitled to a repayment by the State. I have asked time and again what will be done on this issue. What will the State do for these people, who are entitled to a refund which is not being provided?

The Minister of State has talked about fraud, but the State is defrauding these people in not paying. I would like the Minister of State to indicate whether these people will be repaid, as they are entitled to be.

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