Vol. 547 No. 1
558 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children if the persons being repaid money by the health boards following the report of the Ombudsman into nursing homes are entitled to interest on this money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1769/02]
563 Mr. T. Hayes asked the Minister for Health and Children if the persons being paid money back by the health boards following the report of the Ombudsman into nursing homes are entitled to interest on this money; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1811/02]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 558 and 563 together.
I presume the Deputies are referring to the assessment of family circumstances of subvention applicants (Articles 9.1/9.2 of the Nursing Home (Subvention) Regulations, 1993), as well as the assessment of applicant's means which allows health boards disregard a sum equivalent to one fifth of the old age non-contributory pension when assessing these means and calculating the amount of subvention to be paid (Article 8.2 of the regulations).
An additional allocation of £4 million was made available in 1998 to six of the eight health boards, where Article 8.2 was applied incorrectly, to meet the costs of arrears payments in respect of the full implementation of the Health (Nursing Homes) Act, 1990 and subsequent regulations. As the Deputies are aware, there were delays in making these payments to subvention recipients.
In relation to the assessment of children's circumstances, a decision was taken to make payments to people adversely affected by this provision. A group representing the Department and the health boards/Eastern Regional Health Authority was established to ensure that this process is carried out on a uniform basis as speedily as possible. Instructions as to how the payments should be made was issued by my Department and funding was made available to commence the making of these payments from the 1 November 2001.
