The Tánaiste and Minister for Health will tell health boards they are to immediately stop charging elderly people in public nursing homes or in contract beds for their accommodation, because it may not be "legally safe".
Ms Harney told the Dáil yesterday she had received new advice from the Attorney General on Wednesday evening that "issues may arise since the health boards became aware that this was not legally safe".
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, had raised the issue a number of times and claimed the scheme in which public nursing homes residents' pensions are used to pay part of the cost of their accommodation was illegal.
New legislation is required to regularise the scheme and will be introduced after Christmas. The anomaly arose in legislation passed in 2001 when medical cards were extended to the over 70s.
Medical card holders are in principle entitled to free medical care but the pensions of residents of public nursing homes have nonetheless gone directly to the institutions.
The Fine Gael leader said earlier this week the Government was now obliged to refund "€100 million plus" in pensions collected by State nursing homes since 2001.
Ms Harney rejected such a refund because the pension money had been taken in good faith, she said. She acknowledged that the Government would have to deal with refunds from November 5th, which was when the Attorney General had advised the Government of difficulties with the issue.
But Mr Kenny said the legal advice he had received was that "good faith" was not a sustainable defence against an illegally raised charge.
Yesterday she raised the issue herself in the Dáil and said she was informing Mr Kenny that "I have arranged today to write to the health boards and ask them to stop charging people in public institutions or in contract beds forthwith.
"The Attorney General's advice indicates that issues may arise since the health boards became aware that this was not legally safe."
She wished to put that on the record "because Deputy Kenny has raised it on a number of occasions and I received new advice on the matter".
