Áine Brady (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 32 limits the power to charge people in acute beds who are no longer in need of acute care to situations where there is an appropriate facility or service that could treat the individual. The amendment is legally ambiguous as the interpretation of an appropriate facility or service could vary in the opinion of the HSE and the person or the person's family.

For example, if a person continually rejects all available nursing home places as being unsuitable, does this mean he or she may remain in an acute setting indefinitely without being subject to charges? This legal ambiguity undermines the basic policy intention of section 34(3), which is to ensure the legislation does not create a perverse incentive to remain in an inappropriate acute setting. It is therefore not proposed to accept the amendment.