Martin health advisers face grilling over illegal charges debacle
Christy Mannion, who was the minister’s special adviser at health, and Deirdre Gillane, who was policy adviser, will be asked about their handling of the affair on Wednesday by members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children. The committee has already heard from John Travers, author of a report into the issue; Michael Kelly, former secretary general at the Department of Health; Pat McLoughlin, who was chief executive of the South Eastern Health Board when it obtained legal advice indicating the charges were illegal; and Mr Martin himself.
The charges, which were levied on more than 300,000 people between 1976 and 2004, could cost the State up to €2 billion to refund.
A crucial question for the advisers will be why they failed to make Mr Martin aware of the charges issue after it was briefly raised at a meeting between senior department officials and health board chiefs on December 16, 2003, at the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.
Mr Martin was late to the meeting, and the issue had already been dealt with by the time he arrived, a decision taken in his absence to refer the matter to the Attorney General for legal advice.
The advisers were present throughout the meeting. However, neither Mr Mannion nor Ms Gillane subsequently informed the minister of the issue.
The Travers Report found that “the special advisers to the minister might have been expected to be more active in examining and probing the underlying issues.” Their failure to do so represented “a shortcoming of judgment” on their part, it added.
However, the report also said that “the briefing of special advisers by department officials, and the fact that special advisers attend particular meetings, should not be considered, and should not be accepted as, an alternative to the direct briefing of the minister on important areas of policy and operation.”
Mr Martin emphasised this point in staunchly defending his advisers when he appeared before the committee on Thursday.
“It is not the job of advisors to replace or duplicate the civil service,” he said. “It is not their job to be able to be answerable for every issue being handled at every moment in a department. I do not believe it is in any way reasonable to expect that advisers should be actively on top of an item presented as meriting ‘brief mention’ and requiring clarification before a policy discussion could be required.”
However, on Wednesday, former secretary general Mr Kelly - whose evidence conflicts with that of Mr Martin on several key points - took the opposite view.
“If these advisers are not there to alert a minister to something as significant as this, why are they there,” he asked.
