John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)

This is why I would have liked a Minister from the Department of Health and Children to attend. More questions are raised by the reply than I raised in the first place. The final sentence outlines my position. The scheme administrator rejected the claim "on the basis that the patient resided in an institution outside the parameters of the scheme". Clearly, she did. The health board did not provide a suitable bed in which the person could reside. Not only was the person penalised while alive, but the family is being penalised after that person's death. I know the family in question and its intention was to get a refund for some of the money it had invested with its mother's pension to pay for her accommodation and to make a donation to the community hospital in New Ross, a fantastic facility.

The answer was not satisfactory. The Minister of State cannot respond to the issue, but it is a clear case of a family, one example of many hundreds, that has been penalised by the State twice — the State failed to provide a bed and, for this reason, claims the person did not fall within the parameters of the scheme. That is unacceptable and disgraceful.