Searching for a scalp without a tomahawk in sight

The nursing home charges blame game has obscured the important issues, writes Political Reporter Michael O’Farrell.

“THREE months later we are back where we started.” The words of Green Party health spokesman John Gormley said it all yesterday morning as the Oireachtas Health Committee launched its report on the illegal nursing home charges scandal.

Long before the committee’s report was published yesterday afternoon, it was perfectly evident that, as with the Travers Report, former Health Minister Micheál Martin would not be specifically criticised.

Appalled at the manner in which their views were - as they put it - censored from the final committee report by Government parties, Fine Gael’s Liam Twomey and Labour’s Liz McManus took the unprecedented move of publishing their own recommendations, which had been voted down by Government committee members.

Their report, which also includes submissions to the committee not included in the official report, is almost as long as the real thing.

The opposition seek to pin the blame on Mr Martin with point number one concluding he had “failed to accept his responsibility as a minister”.

Essentially responsibility for that “failure” has been the crux of the entire charges scandal from the beginning as the opposition smelled blood and geared up to take out Mr Martin.

But the hunt stank of a wild goose chase as soon as it began. On the launch of the Travers Report three months ago, it was immediately apparent, whatever about the undertones of suspicion, that the report did not uncover enough evidence to hang Mr Martin.

True, there were serious questions raised, but none which could not be brushed aside by Mr Martin’s insistence that he never knew anything - especially since Travers found no concrete evident to contradict that claim.

On a political level, his ability to duck all responsibility by citing his ignorance left the opposition flailing with little chance of landing any damaging blows. But on a moral level, and in the mind of every dog on the street, the sheer inadequacy and brass neck of Mr Martin’s defence still rings hollow.

The lack of even the smallest concession from Mr Martin galls even more given that he never read important briefing material supplied to him before a crucial meeting which discussed the charges issue in December 2002 and failed to act after he was quickly briefed on the issue just before his arrival at the meeting.

“I can’t accept responsibility because I didn’t know,” is the persistent refrain from the former Health Minister and it’s a line he has clung to resolutely. As John Gormley put it yesterday: “See no evil, hear no evil and you can have a great career and maybe even go off and become Taoiseach.”

But even Fianna Fáil members of the Health Committee, including chairman John Moloney, conceded the minister should have read the briefing notes.

Nevertheless, they proceeded to publish and defend the committee’s disputed report, which unlike previous committee reports on disputed issues such as abortion, did not include any dissenting views.

The result is the unseemly row witnessed over the past couple of days as the Health Committee split straight down the middle along party lines.

For the opposition, yesterday’s non-critical report was the last straw in a long series of frustrating attempts to uncover what they see as Mr Martin’s hypocrisy.

The only irony is that those who agree with that view had already made up their minds long ago and need no more convincing. The same applies to the opposite camp.

In one sense, the fundamental issues behind the almost farcical internal committee bickering this week are simply the realities of democracy.

Those in power rule the roost, and despite a civilised veneer of impartiality, committee chairpersons know on which side their bread is buttered.

The opposition knows that and would play the same game themselves were the roles reversed. It’s just that this time they sensed they were tantalisingly close to hooking a prize catch and they are not yet willing to admit that Mr Martin is the one that got away.

The blame game aside, change must be the ultimate goal and despite any deficiencies Travers and the committee report may have, they both make worthy recommendations aimed at clarifying the limit of a minister’s responsibility, among other things.

While the opposition continues to search for a scalp without a single tomahawk in sight - as Senator Camillus Glynn memorably put it yesterday - the secretary-general of the Department of Health will come back to the committee in six months to report on progress in implementing the committee’s recommendations.

And as chairman John Moloney was eager to point out, the real question to be asked in six months will be what has changed?