Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senators for their contributions on this important legislation. As my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, said in his opening remarks, this legislation is necessary in order to provide a legal framework for the long-established practice of charging those patients in long-term care in health board institutions and publicly contracted beds in private nursing homes.

A number of issues were raised by Members with which I will now deal. The Office of the Attorney General has provided advice concerning the current system of charging for long-term care and concluded that health boards have no legal entitlement to charge persons who are fully eligible, including those over 70 years of age. In light of this advice, my Department wrote to the health board instructing them to stop imposing any financial charges on fully eligible persons in receipt of health services, pending the enactment of legislation to regularise the power to impose such charges. If this loophole is not closed to allow this funding to be retained, a significant loss of resources to the health services will result. That is the reason for the legislation.

Senators have been critical of the fact that the legislation has been rushed through the Houses and while we would all like to have plenty of time to tease out legislation, unfortunately, time was not on our side in this case.

In the documentation she provided yesterday, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children explained exactly the short timeframe in which we had to try to enact this legislation. The Tánaiste acted as soon as the information and advice came from the Attorney General.