The referral of the nursing home legislation by the President, Mrs McAleese, to the Supreme Court has been welcomed by organisations and groups campaigning for the elderly.
The President has referred the Health Amendment (No 2) Bill, 2004 to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality.
The legislation rushed through the Oireachtas last week required that elderly people should pay up to 80 per cent of their pensions towards their nursing home bills.
Groups acting for the elderly yesterday welcomed the President's referral. Mr Paul Murray, spokesman for Age Action, said the organisation was delighted the Bill was to go to the Supreme Court.
"This means that the issue which was brought ill-advisedly through the Dáil and Seanad can be resolved," he said.
The Age Action information service had been receiving calls from angry member of the public and the issue had caused more ire than any other for years, he said. Among the issues raising so much anger were those of the ex-gratia payments of only €2,000 in compensation offered when people had paid much more; the fact that if a parent died, money "rifled illegally" over a period from them was not allowed on the estate, and the retrospective element, Mr Murray said.
"What the Government is trying to do is to make something that was illegal, legal. That is just not on," he said.
Age Action would love to see the Supreme Court deciding older people were due their money and then for them to be paid quickly, with as little interference from the legal profession as possible. Nobody wanted to incur legal expenses, he said.
After Christmas, voluntary groups, TDs, Ministers and officials should sit down and work out how the frail elderly could be looked after, said Mr Murray.
The Irish Nursing Homes Organisation (INHO) chief executive, Mr Paul Costello, said he would have serious concerns with the Government's handling of the whole issue.
"The Government has been aware since 2001 through reports of the Ombudsman that the situation existed, and I challenged the Government on it then. So they just sat on it and only acted when it was pushed to the limit," he said.
At the time, he believed the Government took legal advice. It did seriously concern him, he said, that the Government was prepared to ignore its own legal advice.
"It is one more example of the uncaring approach this Government has to subvention and people in nursing homes," Mr Costello said. The €2,000 compensation was "a sop and an insult", he added.
The INHO did not agree with what the Government was trying to do in the Bill. Mr Costello said that it placed an unfair burden on residents and families. He said the State subventions to nursing homes was €115 million.
The budget was grossly inadequate and, compared pro rata with other European countries, including the UK, was significantly behind.
The secretary of SIPTU's Dublin health services branch, Mr Paul Bell, also welcomed the referral.
"Our Government is guilty of having taken money illegally from one of the most vulnerable groups in our society - elderly people in need of long-term residential care," Mr Bell said.
No Government spokesperson had yet apologised for the hardship and stress caused to these people or their families for levying illegal charges on them, he said.
"Instead, they have acted quickly to frustrate the efforts of those seeking redress for the injustice caused," he said.