Legislation published this week will change regulations about how family homes are taken into account as income for elderly nursing home patients, Minister for Health Mary Harney told the Dáil.
She said the current rules for dealing with property as "notional income", put nursing home subvention care beyond the reach of many people who have an average family home. She said this was clearly unacceptable.
Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton said the published Bill has not in any way clarified the eligibility of those who hold medical cards. He said the Government's health strategy stated that it would set out a clear legal basis on eligibility for nursing home care.
He asked when there would be legislation to clarify the exact legal rights of those who hold medical cards but who have not been allowed into public nursing homes and find themselves having to fund care in private ones.
Ms Harney said the Health (Nursing Homes) (Amendment) Bill published on Wednesday would "deal with certain legal issues and will ensure that we have primary backing for the subvention scheme".
The wider issue of eligibility and entitlement is the subject of ongoing work, and legislation will be forthcoming as quickly as possible.
It is a mammoth piece of legislation which deals with the issue of nursing homes as well as the wider issues of eligibility and care, she said.
Policy proposals had been prepared "in order that we have equity of care between those who are in public institutions and those in private nursing home care".
She reiterated that it would be unsustainable for every person over 70 to be entitled to nursing home care free of charge.
Socialist TD Joe Higgins (Dublin West) asked Ms Harney to confirm "that she proposes to hand the care of our elderly people over to a money-grubbing private American-based franchise. The so-called Comfort Keepers website states it will bring the comfort business to Ireland."
He called on Ms Harney for the sake of decency and our elderly, "to scrap this crass, incredible privatisation".
Ms Harney said she was not franchising anything and "no legislation is promised in this regard".
Sinn Féin's Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the most bizarre renaming he had come across was Ms Harney's proposal to rename accident and emergency units as admission units.
