John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

While I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Haughey, who is an able Deputy, I wish to put on record my disappointment that while three matters are being raised on the Adjournment, only one concerns education, which is the responsibility of the Minister of State. The other two matters do not concern education. This is a disrespect to the Members who raise these matters. There are at least four Ministers in the Department of Health and Children and the matter I wish to raise is in the remit of that Department. It is poor form that none of the four Ministers could be present to respond. I intend to raise a number of supplementary questions on this matter but Deputy Haughey will not be in a position to answer them.

This matter concerns the relatives of an individual in my constituency who made a claim for recompense under the health repayment scheme but whose claim was refused. I understand a number of families throughout the country are in a similar position. To outline the case I will read a letter I received from the son-in-law of the lady concerned. I have been making representations on behalf of the family. The letter states:

Dear John Paul

Further to our conversation of recent days in connection with the ... family claim for the above deceased lady under the Health Repayments Scheme, I set out hereunder details of the application and related refusal.

[She] was an elderly lady in possession of a medical card and in receipt of her Widows Pension, she became ill in March 1994 and subsequently required permanent hospitalisation. At that time no suitable hospital accommodation was made available through the normal medical channels for this lady by the South Eastern Health Board simply for lack of hospital beds. The family remained in constant contact with the Health Board on a regular basis for approximately two years in this regard to no affect.

[She] was admitted to the New Ross Community Hospital initially on a week to week basis pending Health Board accommodation which did not materialise. This Hospital allowed [her] to remain there until her death in July 2001. The New Ross Community Hospital is affectively a private hospital and I understand was at the time partially funded by the South Eastern Health Board. [Her] time at this hospital was funded from her small savings, pension and family contributions, [she] died penniless.

The family claim under the Health Repayment Scheme has been rejected primarily on the basis she was hospitalised in private hospitalisation, no consideration has been entertained by the Repayment Scheme bearing in mind the South Eastern Health Board failed in its duty to provide any accommodation for this elderly medical card holder. My appeal on behalf of the family has being rejected ... I understand there are in the region of between 2000/3000 similar cases having being rejected on the same basis.

[She] was a very decent old lady and of a poor family background who today could not possibly consider affording High Court action in this matter and have no alternative remedy in dealing with the rejection.

This stance by the Repayments Board is totally unacceptable and morally wrong. Perhaps you would be kind enough to raise this matter in the Seanad on behalf of [her] family and indeed the other families who are in a similar situation today.

Yours sincerely.

The letter is self explanatory. I have known the family concerned all my life and can confirm that the contents of the letter are true. It is a disgrace. The health board failed in its duty to provide a bed for somebody who was eligible for such and the family was forced to use the New Ross Community Hospital, which is a fine facility. It is a charity that is funded by the people who live in the town of New Ross and in the catchment area of Kilkenny and Wexford. In this case the family was forced to use that facility because no alternative was provided by the health board. This family of modest means is now deemed not to be covered by the terms of the repayment scheme.

That is not fair play. This woman belonged to the generation of people who remained in this country and built it up. It is shoddy treatment by the Department of Health and Children and its agencies, in this case the South Eastern Health Board, that this woman could not obtain a health board bed and, second, that her family is being penalised in this manner after her death. Thousands more families throughout the country are being similarly penalised through no fault of their own. The reason I had hoped for the presence of a Minister from the Department of Health and Children was so I could impress upon them the problem I have with this. It is downright wrong.