Illegal fees: Martin’s absence ‘irrelevant’

THE senior health board executive who first queried the legal basis of charging long-stay patients said yesterday it was “immaterial” that then Health Minister Micheál Martin was absent when the issue was discussed at a crucial meeting.

Pat McLoughlin, the chief executive of the former South Eastern Health Board told the Oireachtas Health Committee that it was an issue that was being dealt with by the chief executives of health boards and the secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Kelly. The ministers and his junior ministers traditionally attended only one of the Management Advisory Committee meetings, usually in December.

Mr McLaughlin said the matter had not been deliberately tabled on the agenda of the meeting in December 2003 because the ministers would be in attendance. He said his view was that it was a matter more properly dealt with at official level. For that reason, he had not personally raised it with any of the ministers.