Minister of State for Older People Mary Butler has expressed concern about what she called unintended consequences of a move to allow residents in long-term nursing home care to retain 100% of rental income from their homes.
The proposal was among eight put forward by the Regional Independent Group and adopted by the Government ahead of yesterday's vote in the Dáil on a Sinn Fein motion to extend the temporary ban on evictions.
Minister Butler said she was disappointed that she was not consulted on the proposal and was concerned that it may result in premature entry into nursing homes.
Ahead of meeting Minister for Housing Darragh O'Brien this afternoon, she expressed the hope that a six-month review of the current practice allowing for a retention of 60% of rental income would go ahead as planned in April.
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Minister Butler said it was a "given" that she wanted to address the housing crisis and make sure that "all available properties are made available".
"It's really, really important that we use every lever of the State to make sure the most houses we can make available to people...across all of Government."
She said: "The rental of the principal private residence of older people who reside in long-term residential care facilities under Fair Deal is a complex and often a sensitive issue.
"Moving into a nursing home usually takes place at a time of crisis, at a difficult time for both the older person themselves and their family and it is not easy to ask an older person to pack up a lifetime of belongings at a time of crisis."
The minister said it is the third time the Government has revisited this issue and that her "only concern is that there are no unintended consequences that may result in premature entry into nursing homes, capacity issues, the fact that those living in nursing homes - 70% would have dementia, and the fact that older people don't want to be landlords".
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The minister said that "since the 1st of November when the change came in so that somebody who rents out their home while they're in a nursing home - which they're completely entitled to do - could keep 60% of the proceeds and 40% would be assessed under Fair Deal - this has only occurred in 24 cases.
"So it obviously bears out the point that I have made that there's a myriad of reasons why people go into a nursing home and renting out their houses would not be their top priority."
She said a review was to take place after six months, which will be in April, and that she still expects the review to go forward.
The minister said she would prefer to see the results of the review before any decisions "that might...have an affect on older people...purely from a safeguarding point of view".
What is the Fair Deal scheme and how does it work?
Separately, Chief Executive of Sage Advocacy, the national advocacy service for older people, Mervyn Taylor, said the organisation is concerned that the issue of vulnerable older people and their care in nursing homes "is being used as a political football as part of a wider debate about freeing up houses in response to the ongoing housing crisis".
Speaking on the same programme, he said: "Some older people find that they've been shoe-horned into a nursing home after a period in an acute hospital.
"A key family member providing an element of care at home - usually an adult child, sometimes a spouse - who refuses to take a relative home can effectively take possession of a property, dispose of their belongings, then rent it to their advantage.
He said: "It was not unknown for Sage Advocacy to have to support a client who's found that the locks in their home have been changed while they were in hospital or in a nursing home for a temporary period, so this gives some sense of some of the complexities involved in this area."
Mr Taylor said Sage Advocacy appreciates the concern of legislators to increase the number of houses available to address homelessness.
But he cautioned "against unresearched, ill-informed, frankly dangerous spur-of-the-moment decisions, which in effect could seek to address the vulnerabilities of younger at the expense of adding vulnerabilities to older people - I don't think the evidence is there".
Concern over financial abuse cases
Policy specialist with Age Action Ireland Nat O'Connor said he shares the concern of Minister Butler, relating to safeguarding for older people over proposed new changes to the Fair Deal scheme and the rental income from their homes.
He said while it is a good thing for older people to have control over their home and be able to rent it out if they want, there is a large number of financial abuse cases happening every year.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, Mr O'Connor said the latest annual report from the Health Service Executive showed there were more than 800 allegations of financial abuse and a lot of these will involve family members.
He said Age Action Ireland has specifically called for safeguarding legislation that is not guidelines given to the HSE and other bodies, but which is underpinned by law, to make it more robust, stronger protections for people in nursing homes.
He said the risk is that family members might see a way of making money if the opportunity is there for people to seek to rent out the house, but neither the HSE or the older person themselves who is the owner might not see any of that money.
He said Age Action Ireland would like to see the definition of coercive control in law made much broader as currently it is too narrow, catering only such as for intimate relationships.
He said it should include "for example an older person who is maybe being coerced into signing over their property by somebody".
"Unfortunately, our information service does get many calls every year in relation to abuse and we have heard of all sorts of very difficult and upsetting situations where an older person is being abused and where if there's property and the property is valuable, that can bring out the worst sometimes in family members and people are trying to get control over that property, control over the assets or over a person's money in other ways.
"This is a reality, it goes on and... we do need to have stronger law to underpin the safeguarding."
Earlier, Minister of State for European Affairs said the Government has put exceptional supports in to assist anyone who is in danger of eviction.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Peter Burke said sensible, sustainable government proposals get broad based support in the Dail.
Mr Burke said Minister Butler would have "fed into" forums discussing changes to nursing home fair deal schemes and supports in the past couple of months.
He said it was not factually correct to say that she was not consulted about the changes.
"There's been a huge debate on this. I mean, it is no secret in Government the changes that were proposed prior to this in relation to the Nursing Home Support Scheme and huge work went on in bringing that about. And obviously we need to make reforms in terms of how income is assessed and anything in relation to the assessment of income that brings more rental property against the market has to be welcomed by everyone."
