Nursing home repayments legislation welcomed
The Green Party welcomed today’s publication of the legislation governing repayments to residents in nursing homes who were illegally charged.
Green Party Chairman and spokesman on Health, John Gormley TD said, “The Green Party welcomes the publication today of the legislation governing repayments to residents in nursing homes who were illegally overcharged.
“We should, however, never lose sight of the fact that government bungling gave rise to this situation in the first place and that we are still looking for satisfactory answers as to how Micheal Martin, Tim O’Malley and Ivor Callerly were not paying sufficient attention to their briefs to allow this illegality to continue. Mary Harney then attempted to retrospectively legalise these unlawful deductions. No politician was blamed for the huge cost incurred by the State, instead, a senior civil servant had to take the rap.
“We need to examine in greater detail the proposal to hand over the administration of the fund to an outside agency. This task has been given to the newly created HSE which has increased bureaucracy and is now looking to hand over this function to a new body. And this is the Tánaiste that talks about breaking down bureaucracy and getting value for money?”