Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, we have a calamity regarding public nursing homes, private nursing homes, section 38 and 39 nursing homes and another calamity regarding disabled persons' maintenance allowance, DPMA. Despite the fact that while it has been acknowledged by Government representatives that the State does not have a leg to stand on as regards the DPMA, for example, there needs to be an acknowledgement of that and an apology given to those people who were affected by it.

The scale of this is massive, unfortunately. This has been left to fester for years without being addressed properly. I ask the Minister to address one thing when he gets the opportunity to speak. At a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts in September 2011, there was an issue around liability, or potential liability, being put at €1 billion. I estimate that if €22,600 has been paid out per claimant to date in those cases that were successful, which was the average cost, that would indicate a cost of €1.58 billion, which is substantially higher than the estimated €1 billion. However, there is a key issue around the fact that it was not and has not been included in the HSE's financial statement. This was raised nearly 12 years ago at a meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts. The Comptroller and Auditor General at the time said that there was really nothing to add, that the policy had been set by the Minister and that the accounts were framed on the basis of the Minister's direction and accounting policies. The Minister might reply as to whether he has given such direction regarding the policy on that. It would be important to know that.

The charges have impacted severely on people who are on low incomes. I received a call last week from a constituent I will call "Mary", although that is not her correct name. "Mary" told me that her father was in a public nursing home during this period and for the years he was there, her mother would send her across with an envelope. Her first child had been born and "Mary" would push her child across in the buggy with an envelope given to her by her mother. Her mother would draw the pension every Friday morning, put money in an envelope and seal it - "Mary" never knew how much was in it - and ask her to bring it over to the nursing unit in the hospital where her father was being cared for. She was to give it to the nun in charge, who would take the money. As far as "Mary" can recollect, a receipt was never given. However, she informed me that this went on for a number of years. I have heard similar stories but that is one I will share with the Minister.

There are a number of questions around the Department's handling of this. Will the Department now inform former residents of public nursing homes and people who were there in the relevant period whether they are entitled to compensation, where compensation has been granted already in those cases? We need to know the number of cases settled with regard to private nursing homes and the value of those settlements.

The Minister might address the likely number of people whose cases have not been addressed in respect of the DPMA, and the situation regarding people in private nursing homes, regardless of whether they have a medical card or in the event they are directed to a private nursing home. That gives them the same entitlement, in fairness, as anybody in a public nursing home with a medical card. That needs to be established and those people need to be treated the exact same. It would be helpful if the Government and Department of Health outlined what they expect in terms of an influx of cases regarding what has happened in the last fortnight and the information that is now in the public domain. That needs to be crystal clear. We as an Oireachtas need accountability on this. We need to see what the potential liability is. These matters need to be addressed. We cannot have people who for one reason or another did not have the resources or wherewithal to claim to be at a loss while people who took a case had it settled out of court because the State did not want it to go to court in a public forum where this would all come out in the open. That is not good enough.

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