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	The weekly fees charged to residents in HSE-run nursing homes have not been published in five years, despite demands for public accountability.</p>
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	Owners of private nursing homes, which must disclose their fees, have said they are being put at a disadvantage and that the HSE&#39;s secrecy is fuelling allegations of price-fixing.</p>
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	Tadhg Daly of Nursing Homes Ireland, which represents private homes, said it was taking legal advice on the lack of clarity around fees.</p>
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	The association will be raising the issue with the Comptroller and Auditor General in an attempt to examine the use of public money.</p>
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	Mr Daly said information on two HSE-run nursing homes showed that they were charging between &euro;2,340 and &euro;2,472 a week, a substantial increase of up to 88pc since the last published figures in 2011.</p>
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	Health Minister Simon Harris recently said that a value-for-money review of costs in public nursing homes was under way. But in a reply to a parliamentary question by Fianna F&aacute;il TD Jack Chambers, he confirmed that the prices were not disclosed.</p>
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	Yesterday, Mr Daly asked: &quot;Are we ever to become aware of what the HSE weekly fees are for their own nursing homes?</p>
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	&quot;We are extremely concerned that the HSE and the Department of Health are involved in some anti-competitive practice to disguise public nursing home costs, so there can be no transparency or accountability.</p>
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	&quot;Previously published but dated research provides some indication as to the realities of the cost of nursing home care in HSE nursing homes.</p>
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	&quot;The Department of Health&#39;s own review of the Fair Deal Scheme stated that the headline price differential in the average cost of care between public and private nursing homes was approximately 58pc.</p>
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	&quot;What are the public not being informed of? Is it because if they were published, private and voluntary homes would have a legal case about the unsustainably low level of payments by the State?&quot;</p>
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	Around three-quarters of the nursing home beds in the country are provided by private nursing homes.</p>
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	The majority of nursing home residents are now in the Fair Deal scheme, which subsidises their care.</p>
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	Others have their care paid for by the State and the residents then pay 80pc of their pension towards the cost.</p>
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	There are currently around 22,000 people in nursing homes but this is set to grow as the population ages.</p>
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	(Published by the Irish Independent on the 13th June 2016)</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/hse-under-pressure-to-reveal-nursing-home-fees-34795072.html">http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/hse-under-pressure-to-reveal-nursing-home-fees-34795072.html</a></p>
