Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2014

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Amendment of section 67C of Principal Act

43. Section 67C (inserted by section 19 of the Act of 2013) of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) in subsection (1)(a), by substituting “the costs of maintenance or accommodation, or both,” for “the cost of maintenance and accommodation”,

(b) by substituting the following for subsection (2)(a) and (b):

“(2) (a) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, make regulations—

(i) making it a requirement that persons to whom residential support services are provided, or persons belonging to a specified class or classes of such persons, shall pay a contribution, in specified circumstances, towards the costs of maintenance or accommodation, or both, associated with the provision of such services,

(ii) specifying the amounts of the contributions or the limits to the amounts of such contributions,

(iii) providing for any matter referred to in this section as prescribed or to be prescribed, and

(iv) providing for transitional arrangements, in specified circumstances, in respect of such contributions as the Minister considers necessary or expedient in respect of such persons, which may include such transitional arrangements relating to the reduction to the amounts of such contributions as the Minister considers necessary or expedient in respect of such persons, or that may be required to avoid undue financial hardship for such persons.

(b) (i) In specifying the amounts of the contributions required to be paid in regulations made under paragraph (a), the Minister may specify different amounts by reference to the respective incomes of the persons required to pay the contributions or by reference to the levels of dependence or independence of such persons, or by reference to both such incomes and such levels of dependence or independence.

(ii) The Minister may, for the purposes of subparagraph (i), have regard to the levels of dependence or independence of persons by taking into account the medical care or nursing care, or both, generally provided in, or to, the accommodation where the persons reside and to those levels of dependence or independence that, in the Minister’s opinion, may be taken to give rise to a need to retain lesser or greater levels of income for personal use by such persons.”,

(c) in subsection (3), by inserting the following after paragraph (a):

“(aa) The daily amount of the contribution required from a person to whom paragraph (b) of the definition of ‘accommodation’ in section 67A(1) applies shall be reduced by one-seventh of whichever of the following 2 amounts is the greater:

(i) the amount that the person provides for his or her accommodation, as calculated pro rata on a weekly basis, less—

(I) the amount (if any) of a rent supplement, as so calculated, that he or she receives pursuant to regulations made under section 198 (3) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 , and

(II) the amount (if any) of housing assistance (or similar subsidy), as so calculated, prescribed for the purposes of this clause, that he or she receives;

(ii) €30 or, if a different amount stands prescribed for the purposes of this subparagraph, that different amount.”,

and

(d) by inserting the following after subsection (7):

“(8) Subject to the other provisions of this section, nothing in this Act or in another enactment (or in an instrument made under this Act or under another enactment) shall be construed as—

(a) prohibiting the imposition upon a person to whom this section applies of a requirement to pay a residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution, or

(b) authorising the imposition upon a person to whom this section applies of a requirement to pay any additional contribution, in respect of the costs of maintenance or accommodation, or both, associated with the provision to a person of residential support services.”