Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

While there was no clear legal basis for the practice, it went on for a long time. It was done in good faith. The majority of the people receiving care did not object to making the contribution towards the cost of their care and were happy to make that small contribution. The Government fully accepts the judgment of the Supreme Court and on foot of that, the Bill was introduced.

The legislation will provide a framework to enable repayments to be made to all those alive and the estates of those who died since 9 December 1998. They will be refunded the charges from the time they were charged to 9 December 2004 when they ceased.

In recognition of the special needs of those in long-stay care, the Bill will put in place appropriate safeguards to protect those who may not have the functional capacity to manage their financial affairs. This will prevent resort to wardship or the use of widespread psychiatric assessments which could substantially delay repayments being made. The scheme will apply to fully eligible people, that is medical card holders and those aged over 70 years with effect from July 2001. To ensure repayments are made in an equitable manner, those without a medical card on admission to long-stay care but who fell within the income means threshold for a medical card, will be regarded as having full eligibility for the purpose of the scheme. It will include those patients in publicly funded long-stay care, in public-contracted beds in private nursing homes and in receipt of inpatient services in community-based facilities.

The tendering process for design of the repayment scheme was implemented. The Health Service Executive decided on the appointment of a preferred service provider at a meeting of its board on 1 June 2006. No information can be made public on the preferred service provider until an interval of 14 days has elapsed. No substantial query or objection has been made by any of the unsuccessful bidders.

Senator Ryan asked why a private company was appointed. Since it was the State which took the money from these patients, it is important to have an independent party involved in administering the scheme. Not only does it reassure the public but it is important the scheme is introduced quickly. Members have been critical of the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children on the appointment of an outside company. The Health Service Executive indicated it is not in a position to administer the scheme. It is not its core function anyway. Some Members believe 200 people in the executive who could do this task are sitting in a room, scratching themselves, looking for work . It was important to get a company with experience in large repayment schemes. This is the largest repayment scheme undertaken in the history of the State. It is important that the money is given to the patients affected as quickly as possible.

Senator Mansergh summed up Senator Bannon's contribution fairly well. It is with some reluctance that I would even reply to Senator Bannon, and this notion of throwing out any figure one likes so that it might stick. Senator Bannon wondered why anyone would contemplate paying €50 million to an outside company to administer the scheme. The good news for Senator Bannon is that we are not contemplating it either.

The application process, as I mentioned earlier, will be as simple as possible. January 2008 is the deadline for submitting applications, not for the making of repayments. Valid applications will be paid until all have been dealt with. Fully eligible persons currently in care and those who have left care recently will be readily identified by records held by the institution. The HSE will ensure applications are submitted on behalf of those in the care of the HSE who are unable to make the application themselves due to a physical or mental disability, or ill health.

The application process will identify the personal representative in the case of estates and will also provide the necessary documentation to help protect the State against fraudulent claims. Applications will be processed as quickly as possible after they are received and the uppermost consideration will be to ensure that a relevant person receives the full amount of repayment due to him or her.

Consideration was given to the inclusion of a deadline for making repayments. However, a deadline was not included for practical reasons, especially due to instances where patients were in long-stay care over an extended period of time and possibly in multiply institutions. To date, the HSE has received 22,000 registrations of interest for repayment. In order to ensure that those eligible for repayments are aware of their entitlements an extensive communications process will be developed around the scheme and this will include television, national and local radio and newspaper advertisements including advice and assistance on how to apply.

The scheme contains a provision to enable those due repayments under the scheme to donate all or part of the repayment specifically for one-off improvements in public health services for older people and persons with disabilities. The fund will only be used to provide for improvements which would not otherwise have been met by an allocation from the Minister for Finance or any other Minister.

The scheme includes an independent transparent, user-friendly appeals process and the Minister will appoint suitably qualified independent appeals officers to consider appeals. Regular reports on the operation of the appeals process will be laid before the Oireachtas. All applicants will be advised of their right to appeal and how to make an appeal, and applicants will also be informed of their right to bring a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The overall cost arising from the long-stay charges repayment scheme has been estimated at €1 billion. An appropriate allocation for 2006 will be made when legislation is passed by the Houses of the Oireachtas and the balance will be required in 2007 and 2008.

If I have time, I will deal briefly with a number of queries raised. Senator Browne asked about the tendering process and wondered whether the second process would be any better. While I cannot give him figures here today, the HSE has indicated there is a significant saving by having the second tendering process and that it will work out much cheaper than was originally proposed in the first round. On the possibility of a challenge, we live in a democracy and anyone who wants to challenge the legislation is entitled to do so. We are happy that the tendering process was fair and above board.

Senator Norris expressed concern that we had not used the word "regret". We very much regret what happened, that we took money from people without the proper legal framework to do so. We are sorry for that. While I suppose words are one way of expressing regret, repaying them might be appreciated all the more and that is what we are doing.

The processing of applications will begin this month. There will be no delay. The money is being provided and we have no wish to delay the process of the applicants receiving their money. We hope that this process can be done as quickly as possible. In reply to Senator Feeney, the repayments will also include interest in accordance with the consumer price index. I hope I have dealt with most of the queries raised.