67C.—(1) (a) Subject to subsections (3) to (6) and section 67D, a person provided with residential support services, whether provided by the Health Service Executive or on behalf of the Health Service Executive, shall pay a financial contribution, in accordance with regulations made by the Minister under this section, towards F140[the costs of maintenance or accommodation, or both,] associated with the provision of such residential support services.

(b) In this section and in sections 67B and 67D, a "residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution" means a contribution required to be paid pursuant to this section and regulations made under subsection (2).

F140[(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) Regulations relating to the matters specified in paragraph (a) may contain such ancillary or subsidiary provisions as the Minister considers necessary or expedient, including provisions relating to the manner of payment, the persons to whom payments are to be made and the collection of monies due and the disposal of monies received in respect of contributions required to be made pursuant to such regulations.

(3) (a) The amount of a contribution required to be paid pursuant to regulations made under subsection (2) shall be expressed as a daily amount, which amount shall not exceed 80 per cent of the maximum daily rate of the State pension (non-contributory).

F141[(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.]

(b) For the purposes of this section—

(i) a person shall be considered as receiving residential support services on a particular day where that person was receiving those services at midnight on the day concerned,

(ii) a reference to the maximum daily rate of the State pension (non-contributory) shall be construed as a reference to one seventh of the maximum weekly rate of State pension (non-contributory), and

(iii) State pension (non-contributory) has the same meaning as it has in the Social Welfare Acts.

(4) A residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution in respect of a particular day shall be payable where, in the 12 month period ending on that day, the person has previously received residential support services on at least 30 days.

(5) In calculating the number of days on which a person has received residential support services within the 12 month period referred to in subsection (4)—

(a) a day on which a person has received acute in-patient services as defined in section 51 (whether before or after the coming into operation of this section or regulations made under it) unless the person concerned was liable to make payment of a charge under section 55 in respect of those services,

(b) a day on which a person was in receipt of State support within the meaning of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009 (whether before or after the coming into operation of this section or regulations made under it), and

(c) a day on which a person received services under this Act provided by or on behalf of the Health Service Executive prior to the coming into operation of sections 67A, 67C, 67D or this section or regulations made under it, which services would, if those sections and regulations had been in force at the time of the provision of those services, have constituted residential support services,

shall be treated as a day on which the person concerned has been provided with residential support services.

(6) Subsection (5) applies notwithstanding that—

(a) the person concerned is a person to whom subsection (7) applies as respects one or more than one of the days, or

(b) the Health Service Executive has, pursuant to guidelines approved under section 67D, as respects the person concerned waived, in whole or in part, the amount of the contribution payable.

(7) A residential support services maintenance and accommodation contribution shall not be payable where the residential support services are provided to—

(a) a person under 18 years of age,

(b) a woman receiving services in respect of motherhood,

F142[(ba) a woman receiving services for the purpose of a termination of pregnancy in accordance with section 9, 10, 11 or 12 of the Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Act 2018,]

(c) a person detained involuntarily under the Mental Health Acts 2001 to 2009,

(d) a person detained in a designated centre under the Criminal Law (Insanity) Act 2006,

(e) a person who pursuant to section 2 of the Health (Amendment) Act 1996, in the opinion of the Health Service Executive, has contracted Hepatitis C directly or indirectly from the use of Human Immunoglobulin Anti-D or the receipt within the State of another blood product or a blood transfusion,

(f) a person in respect of the treatment of infectious diseases prescribed under Part IV of the Health Act 1947,

(g) a person who pays charges which are charged under section 53A, or

(h) a person in receipt of State support or ancillary State support within the meaning of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act 2009.]

F141[(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.]