Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 136: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children if payment of outstanding moneys due to persons affected by the nursing homes subvention will be made during 2006 and, in particular, to psychiatric patients in low and medium high support hostels. [39331/05]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Government has agreed the key elements of a scheme for the repayment of long stay charges for publicly funded residential care.

All fully eligible persons who were wrongly charged and are alive and the estates of all those who were wrongly charged and died since 9 December 1998 will have the charges repaid in full. The scheme will not allow for repayments to the estates of those who died prior to that date. The repayments will include both the actual charge paid and an amount to take account of inflation, using the consumer price index, since the time the person involved was charged.

Draft heads of a Bill for a repayment scheme have been prepared and will shortly be submitted to Cabinet for approval. The legislation will be brought before the Oireachtas in the next parliamentary session to provide a clear legal framework for the scheme. It is the intention to have the repayments commencing shortly after the Bill is approved and signed into law. In the case of those who were charged and are still alive, the repayments will be exempt from tax and will not be taken into account in assessing means for health and social welfare benefits. The normal tax and means assessment arrangements will apply to those who benefit from repayments to estates.

The legislation will include appropriate safeguards to prevent exploitation of those who receive repayments and are not in a position to manage their own financial affairs. The scheme will include a provision to allow those eligible for a repayment to waive their right to a repayment and have the money assigned to fund one-off service improvements in elderly, mental health and disability services.

A national oversight committee representative of service users, including Age Action Ireland and the Irish Senior Citizens' Parliament, has been appointed and has already begun its work. It will provide an independent input into the design of the scheme and monitor the operation of the scheme in order to ensure that it is being implemented quickly and in the most equitable and effective way possible.

The scheme will be designed and managed with the aim of ensuring that those who are eligible for repayments receive them as soon as possible and with the minimum possible imposition in terms of bureaucracy. Priority will be given to those who are still alive. Many of those eligible for repayments have already been identified under the ex gratia payments process. The scheme will include a transparent and thorough appeals process.

An outside company with experience in handling mass claims will be engaged by the Health Service Executive, HSE, to design and manage the scheme within the parameters of the key principles approved by Government. The company selected will work closely with the HSE to ensure that the necessary co-operation is forthcoming on records held by the health agencies. The HSE has received expressions of interest from a number of companies and these have been short listed. A negotiated tendering procedure was chosen as the best way forward with these companies and the HSE has informed the Department that the process of selection is at an advanced stage. It is anticipated that the successful company will provide an independent input into the design and administration of the scheme.

The national helpline set up by the HSE to allow people to register if they believe they are due a repayment will continue to operate but there is no need for anyone who has already registered using this facility to make contact with the HSE again to register for the scheme.