Questions raised over Martin care charge denial
As he jetted off to Australia for St Patrick’s Day, several revelations raised further questions as to how Mr Martin never became aware of the urgency of the long-stay charges issue.
Although this week’s Travers report failed to uncover any documentary evidence to suggest Mr Martin had been properly briefed on the affair, it emerged last night that a letter from a constituent had informed him of the illegal charges four years ago.
It also emerged yesterday that yet another 2001 Government report had expressed concern over the charges issue. The report, commissioned by the Department of Health and published in May 2001, was not mentioned in the Travers report. However, it warned of anomalies and inequities regarding charges. “There is a need to provide a clearer basis for contributions towards the cost of long-term maintenance,” the report concluded.
As referred to in the Travers report, those concerns had already been voiced in the Ombudsman’s report in January 2001, which warned it was unconstitutional to charge fees to medical card holders in nursing homes. Mr Martin said at the time that the Ombudsman’s report should serve as a “wake-up call to the entire system”.
“The Dáil didn’t exercise its accountability role effectively throughout the ’90s in relation to this and yes, we have to draw lessons from that and make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
Constituent Eamonn O’Rourke, who subsequently wrote to Mr Martin in 2001 to complain that his aunt was made hand over her pension book, said he was very disappointed with the minister’s response.
“I heard on the radio that the Ombudsman had said these nursing home charges were illegal so I wrote to Micheál Martin asking him what I could do because my aunt was a medical card holder,” Mr O’Rourke said.
Although an initial reply, signed by Micheál Martin, said the minister would “make inquiries into the matter”, no further correspondence ensued.
Mr Martin’s spokeswoman last night confirmed the letter did come from his office but said it was standard procedure to acknowledge queries in this manner.
She said Mr O’Rourke’s letter would have been forwarded to the Southern Health Board for follow-up and not dealt with by the minister himself.
“The issue of legality of these charges was raised several times in the Dáil and Mr Martin repeatedly stated that they were being levied under regulations introduced in 1976 - he was not aware that there was any problem with them until the Attorney General gave this advice to the Tánaiste last October,” she said.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Brian Cowen said the Government was considering a phased repayment of nursing home charges.
