Martin ‘should resign’ over nursing homes

MICHEÁL MARTIN should “resign or be fired” over the Government’s failure to act upon the illegal deductions of pensions from nursing home residents, Fine Gael said yesterday.

Later this week, the report into the handling of the controversy within the Department of Health by former Forfás chief John Travers is expected to be published by Tánaiste Mary Harney.

Legislation passed by Ms Harney as Health Minister legitimising the deductions was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and the Government now faces a bill of up to €2 billion to reimburse pensioners and their families.

Ahead of the report’s publication, Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said it was crystal clear in July 2001, when medical card eligibility was being extended to all over-70s, that there was a major issue to be dealt with in the nursing home deductions.

Then in 2003, at a meeting between the department and health board chiefs, the massive legal problems with the deductions were raised again. Mr Martin, then the Minister for Health, says he was not present at the meeting when this matter was discussed and it was not brought to his attention.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week yesterday, Dr Twomey said Mr Martin and former Junior Health Minister Ivor Callely must take responsibility for their involvement in the affair, particularly as this was a matter of fundamental importance in the health service.

“Minister Martin and Minister Callely have far more to answer for than Mary Harney.

“I think he (Minister Martin) should resign and if not he should be fired,” he said.

Documents released by Ms Harney late last year showed that suggestions by Mr Martin that he had been unaware of the legal problems surrounding the charging of elderly people in nursing homes were without foundation. This was raised at the high-level ‘MAC/CEO’ meeting in late 2003.

The minutes, under the heading “Long Stay Charges - Over 70s”, record that “the varying views of legal advisers were noted in the context of the legislation clarifying existing entitlement”. Legal advice available to the South Eastern Health Board was also passed to the Department of Health in early 2003.

Mr Martin says he had been unaware of the legal problems surrounding the charging of elderly people in nursing homes.