Emergency legislation to regularise a scheme charging medical card holders for nursing home residential care, seeks to "deem something to be legal which was illegal", the Labour Party leader has claimed.
"The Taoiseach says an illegal charge can be made, which can be made legal by retrospective legislation," Mr Pat Rabbitte said.
But Mr Ahern rejected the accusation and said that paying nursing home residents was not the issue, "as unpopular as it might be to say so. I believe people in general accept it is reasonable and fair that there should be a contribution towards living costs, that is, expenses for shelter and maintenance." Emergency legislation will be rushed through the Dáil today. "It is not an argument about whether people should pay the charges," he said.
A €2,000 ex-gratia payment will be made to 20,000 people in publicly funded residential units, whose pensions have been used towards payment for their care. The payment, which the Taoiseach said would be made automatically, was a "gesture of goodwill" for the charges, which have been deemed legally unsafe following the enactment of legislation in 2001.
The scheme to use the pensions has been in place since 1954, but the anomaly arose under the 2001 Act, which gave the over- 70s entitlement to a medical card.
In principle they are entitled to free medical care, but their pensions have gone automatically to the institutions. The charge is €10 million a month and the Opposition estimated that full refunds would amount to €300 million.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said his party had been pilloried for more than 50 years over a decision by then party leader Ernest Blythe, to reduce old-age pensions.
"This is a very sensitive matter for these people," he said. "They are not the people who attend at tents at the Galway races or go on multiple holidays each year.
"They are the sick, the elderly, the lame, the blind, stroke victims, Alzheimer's patients in their 70s, 80s and 90s."
