Results 3,601-3,620 of 11,255 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Okay, that is grand.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (16 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Before I start, I want to declare that I acted in a legal capacity - and the Secretary General is aware of this - against the Department of Health and the health boards starting in 2004 in relation to these nursing home cases, and, in fact, I acted in the settlement of both public and private cases. In fairness to the people before us, some of this goes back as far as 1956, if you go through...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: If there is clear evidence that someone had looked for a public bed in a public nursing home, could not get a public bed and ended up in a private nursing home, is there not now a need to set up a structure to allow that funding, the moneys such people paid over, to be refunded to them?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes, but the legal cases have never been decided and, as I have openly declared, I am no longer involved in any of that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: The issue still arises that there are quite a number of people who did not take cases but who feel aggrieved by the fact that they could not get a public bed and did not get any State support, even though they were technically entitled to State support. Has the Department looked at that issue? How does it propose to progress it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Does the Department intend to look at it?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: I will move on to the matter of the people who were in facilities and were not refunded. I am talking about public facilities where charges were deducted. Will the Department now look at that issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Yes, but then there were other cases in which people were in facilities which were not covered by that scheme. Will the Department now look at that whole issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Mr. Watt is talking about coming back within-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: What kind of numbers are we talking about if we are-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Are we talking about 1,000? Are we talking about 2,000?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: My understanding is that, in fact, in respect of the nursing home refund scheme, which was set up in 2006, people who were in mental health facilities were refunded. Am I correct about that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: My understanding is that, under the 2006 redress scheme, anyone who was in a mental health facility was refunded as well.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: My understanding is that, for instance, in Cork there certainly were cases where people were in a mental health facility and it was a public hospital or a public mental health facility.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: They were refunded, as I understand it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Is Mr. Watt saying he will have a full and detailed report back to us within three months on the other-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: Finally, as regards the issue of elderly care and health facilities, a lot of this started in 1976 with the Maud McInerney case. Then we had an Ombudsman's report and we ended up with litigation and a redress scheme. In the same way as we have a Ombudsman for Children, is there not now a need for an ombudsman or a commissioner for elderly care or that whole area? My understanding is that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: I am saying we should have a specific commissioner for older people. Mr. Watt referred to a figure of about €1 billion in respect of nursing home care. My understanding is that such an office would cost about €2 million, which is a very small amount of money in real terms. At the same time, we would have someone focusing on this particular area, which I think would be beneficial.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

Colm Burke: The nursing home scheme was announced with a refund in 2006. The first challenge in the High Court was in December 2004 and anyone who was alive on or after 8 December 1998 could claim. Am I correct that anyone who was in a public nursing home prior to 8 December 1998 but who had died was not entitled to claim? In other words, it goes back six years from the date of the first challenge in...