The families and the estates of former residents of public nursing homes and long-stay facilities who had pensions and other State payments illegally deducted will be able to apply for repayment of the money, the Minister for Health, Ms Harney, has said, writes Martin Wall.
The Government bill for the repayments to former patients, their families and estates will cost a minimum of €500 million, and maybe substantially more.
A special Cabinet sub-committee comprising the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tánaiste, the Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, and the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady, is to meet today to consider the issue of repaying the money which the Supreme Court found last week had been illegally deducted.
Ms Harney told the Dáil last night the Government was anxious to ensure that individuals affected, as well as their families and the estates of deceased persons, would be repaid as quickly, fairly and efficiently as possible. Above all, the Government wanted to avoid individuals having to take legal action to recoup the money.
Ms Harney also indicated the State would have to make repayments going back to 1976 for patients in long-stay accommodation who were of unsound mind.
"Clearly the statute of limitations cannot apply to anybody who was not of sound mind, which would include many citizens in mental institutions or perhaps intellectually disabled individuals".
The Cabinet sub-committee will consider whether the six-year statute of limitations should apply to all persons other than those not of sound mind who were resident in State-run nursing homes, in beds contracted by the State from the private sector or in other long-stay facilities. It will also consider whether a statutory scheme to govern the repayment of the money should be put in place.
The Department, the Minister said in a written Dáil answer, was considering whether the deduction of disability benefits from people with disabilities in residential care as a contribution towards their care was also covered by last week's Supreme Court ruling.
Fine Gael's spokesman on disabilities, Mr David Stanton, said last night that the Minister's comments had "enormous implications".
However, a spokesman for Ms Harney said it was known that the ruling would affect everyone who had been a resident in a long-stay public facility and who had had any State payment deducted.
The Tánaiste described the task of making the repayments as "complex and mammoth" given that it involved some 275,000 people.
Government sources have rejected any division between Ms Harney and Mr Cowen over the implications of the massive bill which the State is facing. Ms Harney said it would be necessary for the Government to introduce a supplementary estimate to provide the funding for the Department of Health to make the repayments.
She said there would be no cutbacks in the estimate for the Department of Health or any other Department as a result of the ruling.
However, she acknowledged that "money that will need to be repaid is money that could be used for other matters".