Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The overcharging of patients in nursing homes was a violation of their rights and an abuse of the trust that many had placed in the State. It was not the first time, and I am sure it will not be the last. Thankfully, the exposing of this issue by a whistleblower, Mr. Shane Corr, has resulted in it coming to light and shown the true extent of the charges and the impact they have had on the lives of patients. But for a whistleblower, where would we be?

No matter how the Government dresses this up, the fact is that the overcharging of vulnerable patients in nursing homes between the 1970s and the 2000s was a wrong, devastating and shocking exploitation of some of the most vulnerable members of society, namely, elderly and disabled people. The issue was covered up by successive Governments has only added to the hurt and anger of those affected. The system that served those Governments must take some responsibility, including Secretaries General and everyone else receiving such large remunerations.

We now know that more than 300 legal cases have been taken relating to the State's handling of nursing home fees. The matter has dominated the political agenda since the Irish Mail on Sundayfirst reported on a secret internal Government document that detailed the strategy to minimise the cost to the State. Imagine there being such a document. This year, we will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of people who gave their lives to free our country, such as Mr. Liam Lynch in a number of week's time, yet this is how we have been treating citizens. How more callous could a system be?

I support other Deputies in their comments on the disparity between private and public nursing homes. Public nursing homes are getting more than €620 per week more to cater for each patient than a private one does. This is a significant discrimination. Private nursing homes have had to ask the European Commission for justice. They have been lobbying Irish Governments. There are many of them in my county, for example, in Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, Cahir, Cashel, Thurles, Templemore, Nenagh and Lorrha. They are under savage pressure due to the cost-of-living crisis and the staffing crisis, under which they are trying to retain staff. Public nursing homes can pay staff better and give them greater job security because of a discriminatory practice favoured by the Government. This is a shocking situation that must be rectified. I am sure the European Commission will find in their favour, but the Government will be dragged kicking and screaming to it again.

We know that successive Governments before 2011 and up to the present devised and applied a strategy to deny refunds to people who were "illegally charged" nursing home fees. The State faced the prospect of paying €12 billion in compensation to hundreds of thousands of families wrongly charged for the care of their loved ones over a 30-year period. The central allegation in this scandal is that the Government, even knowing that it could not win in court, sought to contest the cases and only settled when people proceeded with legal actions. I would love to know what the State has been paying in legal costs. We have the experience of the late Vicky Phelan and many others who had to drag the State through the courts. We all stood up and made glowing tributes to her after she died. This is a shocking indictment of what is supposed to be a democratically accountable Government.

This controversy has stretched over 30 years. Successive Governments and health bosses have been found to have failed to remedy the grounds for the illegal charges imposed on mostly older people. How many people are involved and how much will it cost? According to the document, the State's exposure could be as large as €12 billion. By 2011, up to 70,000 people were considered eligible for refunds. In the end, though, 35,000 applications were received and the State paid out €486 million on almost 20,000 cases through the health repayment scheme, HRS. This meant that approximately 15,000 applicants were refused refunds point blank. Where is the compassion, empathy and respect for elderly citizens? They are the people who built this country and gave us the life we have today. They worked hard, paid their taxes and raised their families when they did not have much and did not ask for much. Unfortunately, they would still be at home if they had been in a position to remain in their homes.

The Government has stated the issue has been "grossly misrepresented". However, this assertion is nothing more than a tactic to hide the facts and cover up the wrongs of this diabolical overcharging scandal, which had the full consent of many Ministers for Health, including the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach when they were in the Department of Health. The Taoiseach has serious questions to answer about his personal involvement as Minister for Health into the secret nursing home changing scandal, which was designed to subvert the rights of citizens to natural justice.

That is what it was. Anyone who knew about it should also be aware of that. It was designed to subvert the natural justice rights of citizens. The more than 300,000 vulnerable elderly residents directly impacted, many of whom have since passed away - Lord rest them - and their respective families who suffered extreme financial hardship because of actions of consecutive Ministers for Health must be told the truth.

The Attorney General was due to produce a report for the Cabinet this week. That report should be made public and should have been provided to all Members of the Oireachtas ahead of this debate. We did not get it. It will probably never see the light of day. We need to know if the Attorney General's report is meaningful or merely an attempt by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party to remove the heat from this diabolical scandal, by kicking it onto the Attorney General for cover. Many Attorneys General have looked at this. The office and all the teams there must take some responsibility. One cannot be hiding behind the other.

Depriving those affected of their legal entitlement to full reimbursement is heartless and cruel. Failure to come clean and to deny these families the truth is abhorrent and sinister, especially as this heartless legal strategy needed the approval of the serving Minister for Health. We need to know if the current Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, and other serving Ministers in the current Cabinet agreed to extending this disrespectful and deceitful practice. Clearly, the Taoiseach’s explanation of his involvement in this cruel scandal is not credible. This disgusting issue has been swept under the carpet for too long. The public must be provided with transparency, openness, and accountability which we hear so much about. We have millions of euro and teams of spin doctors to get the message out and to spin. How can anyone have faith in the system that serves us when this is going on and with what is going on with the banking scandal? Who paid the piper there? The ordinary people were made to carry the can. The bondholders and junior bondholders who had insurance bonds on their lending - it was reckless lending - got off scot-free. We sided with the bankers. One of the last acts of the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, as Minister for Finance before he left to become Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform was to give back bonuses to a cohort of bankers who needed it badly because they only earn €1 million or so a year.

We then have a cohort of ordinary people who we all stood and clapped for, such as nurses, people working in nursing homes and care attendants, many of whom work for agencies and who still have not received the widely acclaimed €1,000 we were to give them for dedicated service. Why are we discriminating against citizens who are care assistants and nurses in nursing homes and other private settings when we were supposed to give the payment to everyone in healthcare? Why did we announce it with such fanfare if we did not have the money to pay for it or the goodwill to honour the announcement? We make contracts with people and it is a two-way street. People give a service and they do their best. Déanann siad a ndícheall. They gave great service and now they are ringing my office and those of all Deputies every week to know when they are getting the payment they were promised. Many of them took a well-deserved break or perhaps bought something for the house on the strength of it and they are still waiting for it. Will they be waiting like the people who are waiting to get their money back? How long more will the Government keep them waiting? Will they be waiting until the cows come home? Where is the respect for these staff, these families, for people with disabilities, for the elderly and vulnerable people who the Government wrongfully charged this money and then fought through the courts? It is not apparent in this House. It has not been apparent in successive Governments and it is getting worse by the week.

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