The Minister for Health should publish new legislation in relation to the Fair Deal Scheme which is long overdue, according to Fianna Fáil TD for Laois Sean Fleming.
“The Nursing Home Support Scheme, known as the Fair Deal Scheme, offers financial support to people who need long term nursing home care,” Deputy Fleming said.
“Under this Fair Deal Scheme people undergo a means test and make a contribution towards their care and the State pays the balance. 7.5% of the value of their house is included as part of their means in this calculation,” he said.
“This 7.5% charge only runs for 3 years and where people are in nursing homes for longer than 3 years, there is no further charge in respect of the valuation of the house.
“However when it comes to farmers and small businesses, this 7.5% charge continues indefinitely and in some cases there could be a major bill chargeable against the estate when the person passes away.
“To deal with this, the Government introduced the Ancillary State Support (Nursing Home Loan Scheme) whereby the HSE advances a loan to the person to meet their portion of the contribution of the cost that is based on their land or other business or property assets,” he said.
Since the scheme was introduced in 2009 the HSE has advanced loans of €87.5m up to September 2017, Deputy Fleming said.
He noted that the Revenue Commissioners are the collecting agent on behalf of the HSE. Up to September 2017 they had collected €59.6m in repayments under this loan scheme.
“A key element of any new legislation will have to include a provision whereby a person in the Nursing Home Loan Scheme can transfer to any new scheme that will be on offer.
“These people cannot be trapped in the existing punitive scheme even though they can continue to be in the nursing home into the future,” Deputy Fleming said
“The Minister will also have to clarify the transitional arrangements for dealing with the €27.9m outstanding debt that is due under the existing scheme in this new legislation.
Delay
“There has been too much delay on this so far. The Fair Deal Scheme was due to be reviewed in 2012.
“The Government delayed the report of the review until 2015. Since then we have a Working Group examining the matter. All in all this is 6 years after the original review was to be carried out and we are still waiting for the legislation,” he said.
“The Minister must stop talking about reviews and working groups and get on with his job of publishing the legislation as soon as possible,” concluded Deputy Fleming.
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