The Supreme Court will start hearings next Monday on whether legislation giving the Government power to charge residents of public care institutions via deductions from their pensions is constitutional.
The President Mrs McAleese, referred the Health Amendment No 2 Bill to the court on December 22nd following a meeting with the Council of State. It is Mrs McAleese's first referral in her second term.
Emergency legislation was rushed through the Oireachtas by the Government in early December following an opinion from the Attorney General that the charging of nursing home residents for their care by making deductions from their pensions was legally unsound.
The legislation sought to give retrospective authority to the Government for the practice stretching back 28 years and also regularise the practice for the future.
The Tanaiste and Minister for Health, Ms Harney, said the charges generated more than €100 million a year for the health services. However, she has welcomed the Supreme Court hearing, saying a judgment would avoid a series of legal challenges to the Bill.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) will shortly start paying €2,000 ex-gratia, promised by the Government, to elderly patients illegally charged for care in public nursing homes in the past.
Under the Constitution the court has sixty days to deliver its ruling from when the case was referred to it. Twelve of the 14 presidential referrals since 1940 were deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court.
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