The legality of levying a charge on people with disability living in HSE-funded community group homes with no nursing care was questioned at an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
The joint committee on social and family affairs compared the issue to that of nursing-home charges.
Deirdre Carroll, chief executive officer of Inclusion Ireland, the national association for people with an intellectual disability, said the issue of charges affected about 7,000 people.
Everybody was aware of the debacle of the nursing home charges, but people were not aware of those in residential care being charged, she said.
In its submission, Inclusion Ireland said: "The legality of charging people with disability living in HSE-funded community group homes where there is no nursing care provided remains to be clarified.
"Most of the residential care groups for people with intellectual disabilities are voluntary bodies, and it is not clear that they ever had or continue to have a legal right to levy charges."
Ms Carroll said these were people who received residential care service but not nursing service. The regulations as they stood did not appear to cover this group.
People living in residential care could have disability allowance even though they were not living at home. Some services charged for upkeep. There were a variety of charges, some €50 and others €100.
"So how is it done? Who is giving consent? It needs to be sorted out," Ms Carroll said.
She said charges were often excessive. The HSE was investigating this and was obtaining legal advice but it could take six months, she said.
More than 30 per cent of people with intellectual disability live in residential facilities of some kind, residential centres or community group homes.
David Stanton TD (FG) said that, with the charges, the disability allowance was not ending up with those for whom it was intended. "How long has this been going on? The last thing we want is another nursing homes issue," he said.