State urged to manage nursing refunds

The Opposition has called on the Government to manage the nursing home repayment scheme from within the public sector rather than commissioning a private-sector company at a cost of potentially tens of millions of euro.

The Irish Times revealed yesterday that the Health Service Executive (HSE) had scrapped a competition for an external company to design and manage the repayment scheme because of the excessive levels of fees being sought.

Companies tendering for the project had sought fees of between €30 and €50 million.

The HSE has now readvertised for tenders but the contract will not be awarded until mid-April.

It is understood that some companies which expressed an interest missed the original deadline for tenders and could not be considered.

Health service management hopes that the new competition will generate "a more competitive market response".

Fine Gael and Labour said yesterday that the expertise for handling large-scale payment schemes was available within the public sector.

The scheme to repay money deducted illegally from residents in publicly funded nursing homes and other long-stay accommodation is expected to cost about €1 billion.

However, a spokesman for Minister for Health Mary Harney said last night that the Government would continue with plans to have a private-sector company involved.

The spokesman said that the Government continued to examine with the HSE all options to put in place a scheme that was transparent, efficient and fair but that did not cause any drain on public services.

The spokesman said that the scheme involved a "substantive administrative task".

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said that the failure of the Government to arrange for the repayment of illegally deducted charges was "shocking".

He said it was clear that the Government was putting greater emphasis on the process of repaying the money rather than on the repayment itself.

He said that the money was to go to the weakest and most vulnerable citizens who did not have time on their hands.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus proposed that the Department of Social and Family Affairs could handle the scheme.