Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I certainly support the amendment. One must ask whether there is a balance of fairness between the executive and the citizen in a nursing home. On the one hand, an elaborate set of procedures is laid down in the Bill for a person who wants to appeal against a refusal. The grounds must be within a framework acceptable to the executive and a particular set of requirements must be followed. On the other hand, section 7D states that at any time the executive may arrange for a review to be carried out.

The formulation regarding the executive is loose. Almost immediately after granting a subvention, should it wish to do so, it may change either the degree of dependency or the level of means. However, the procedures laid down in the section governing a dependant or a person acting on his or her behalf are more cumbersome. This raises a further question about the human being involved in the assessment.

The reason I support the amendment is the decision should apply for at least 12 months. Otherwise, there could be an absurd situation whereby a person will be subject to this strange method of decision making on degree of dependency and then be vulnerable in having it redefined almost arbitrarily within an extremely short period of time. As I understand it, all the amendment seeks to ensure is that a decision arrived at would apply for 12 months.

I am regularly invited to be practical. I would like to be practical about this issue also. Let us suppose a hypothetical case concludes with a person being moved from one category of dependency to another. Can I assume the contribution of the HSE will automatically change? I cannot find any such guarantee in the legislation. While one could find one's category has changed, one's liability has remained stable. That is not in the interests of anybody. The case can be made that it could work the other way but that is a separate issue. This involves a person being assessed using multiple criteria. In many cases there is considerable merit in leaving a decision stand for a period of time. The rights of the person concerned included in a later section can be invoked better in such circumstances.

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