The Tánaiste has repeated that those illegally charged for nursing home care will be fully repaid, after it emerged that the Government had entered a full defence in cases where court proceedings have been issued.
A spokesman for the Tánaiste said yesterday Ms Harney "reiterates that all of the people illegally charged will be paid back, and the estates of those who died in the past six years will be repaid in full in line with the Supreme Court decision".
This would be done through a mechanism to be established shortly by legislation.
He said defences had been entered to court cases because "some solicitors have lodged complaints in the courts seeking the repayment of the charges, but also exemplary and punitive damages. The Supreme Court judgment does not mandate the Government to pay exemplary and punitive damages and the repayment scheme will not do so."
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday of court proceedings taken by a family whose late mother had been charged fees in a public nursing home: "The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, the HSE and the Attorney General have lodged a full defence."
This ran contrary to the Supreme Court ruling 12 months ago that this money must be repaid.
Mr Kenny said: "In that defence the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and her co-defendants deny any liability. They deny the illegality of charges and deny that any monies were taken. They deny the entitlements to restitution.
"The statements made by the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children and her co-defendants are utterly at odds with the Supreme Court ruling and the Government's stated policy of repaying illegally taken fees."
Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey, who took the Dáil's Order of Business yesterday, told the House the legislation to deal with the repayment scheme would be before the Dáil before Easter.
However, Cork solicitor Colm Burke, who has initiated court proceedings on behalf of a number of those seeking repayment, said yesterday that this was unacceptable. Mr Burke took his first case in November 2004, just after the issue was aired in the Dáil.
"The Supreme Court gave a clear decision that the money should be refunded on February 16th, 2005. When there were crises at the Insurance Corporation of Ireland, PMPA and Goodman, they had legislation within a week. We are a year on from the Supreme Court judgment. Some of my clients have died. The Supreme Court referred to them as the most vulnerable section of society."
Mr Burke, who is also a Fine Gael councillor, said that as the wait for the legislation continued, he had received letters from the authorities seeking extra details and particulars of claims.
"Why should we have an 85-year-old lying in a nursing home and by the time they get the money they won't be alive, they won't have the benefit of the money?"
He said the State did not have to enter a full defence denying everything. "They could draft a defence admitting to certain facts. They could say they are paying back the money but nothing more."