Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Under section 53B there is provision for charges for long-term residential care services under the Nursing Home Support Scheme Act 2009. This is a technical amendment resulting from the repeal of section 53 of the Health Act to which the House has agreed. The new section 53C provides for charges to be raised for acute public inpatient services in public hospitals at a rate of €80 per day; for certain categories of people to be exempted from the charges, for example, medical card holders and others currently exempted; for the Minister for Health, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, to make regulations specifying the amounts of charges and the maximum number of days, within the range of seven to 15 days, that the charge may apply in a period of 12 consecutive months; and for the factors the Minister for Health must have regard to in making such regulations.

Under the new legislation the Oireachtas is being asked to set out clear limitations on how much and on whom the Minister for Health may impose charges for public acute inpatient services. Currently there are no limits on what the Minister for Health may charge public patients in terms of the rate and the daily charges and the number of days they can be levied. In fact, the Oireachtas is getting more control over this and creating a statutory basis for delimiting these charges. In these circumstances, I commend the amendments to the existing legislation proposed by the Government to the House.