Claims patients will not pay for HSE overspends are wrong — care will be hit if costs are cut, writes Fiachra Ó Cionnaith

FORMER National Irish Bank CEO Jim Lacey has denied before the High Court that he was “well aware” bogus non-resident accounts were a wide- spread problem at the bank during his tenure and that it was “impossible” he could not have known about it.

The money recovered from tax-evading insurance investors should be ring-fenced to pay for the overcharging of nursing home patients, it was claimed today.

The Ansbacher bank is to consider whether to appeal a Grand Court ruling in the Cayman Islands last night that identities of their Irish account holders cannot be released.