Nursing home fees: A decision on which private company will be chosen to administer the refund of nursing home charges illegally deducted from elderly people in State nursing homes is expected to be made later this week.
Minister of State for Health Seán Power said the tendering process was at an advanced stage and he expected a decision to be made when the Health Service Executive board met on Thursday.
He told the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children last week that he expected the first refunds to be paid out at the end of June. He said there were up to 20,000 living persons who would be entitled to refunds and the estates of up to 50,000 deceased would also benefit. The cost of the refunds was expected to amount to about €1 billion.
Fine Gael's health spokesman, Dr Liam Twomey, said the average length of stay in nursing homes was two to three years. He said it was known since late 2004 that money should not have been deducted from the pensions of elderly people for their care in public nursing homes and he suggested at the rate the State was progressing with legislation governing the repayments many of those due refunds would be dead before the money was paid out.
He also said one private contractor had sought €40-€50 million for the funds' administration.
Labour's health spokeswoman Liz McManus said there should be sufficient expertise within the Civil Service to administer the refunds rather than getting a private company to do so and paying it millions. Minister for Health Mary Harney was "ideologically wedded to the private system" to the point of being silly about it, she claimed.
Mr Power said this was the biggest repayments scheme in the State's history and the HSE would not be able to handle the repayments without diverting staff from normal duties. He said the Government had decided a private contractor would handle the repayments but how much would be paid for this service was not yet known. He did not expect it to cost €40-€50 million.