Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

We have already done that. It is understood that Nursing Home Ireland advised their members that the fee should be passed on to residents. This disregarded the obvious intention that the fees should be considered in the context of the National Treatment Purchase Fund negotiations. The Department wrote to Nursing Homes Ireland in August and October 2009 to advise that as private enterprises, it is a matter for each individual private nursing home to determine the rate charged for services, and that the price set by each nursing home is not determined by the Minister, the Department or by HIQA.

When these new fees were introduced, the Minister anticipated that they would naturally be subject to periodic renegotiations to take account of inflation, deflation and other developments. The Department stressed that this should in no way be taken as an imprimatur for individual nursing homes to invoice their residents with an additional charge on the introduction of the new fees.

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