Department chief faces grilling over grant cuts

An Oireachtas committee has asked the Department of Health’s top civil servant to appear before it following the axing of the mobility grant, as it is “increasingly concerned at the difficulties in the relationship between the Ombudsman and the Department of Health”.

The chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions, Pádraig Mac Lochlainn said the Department of Health “is constantly failing to learn from past mistakes” and requested Dr Ambrose McLoughlin to attend the committee next week.

“The mobility grant scheme is not the first scheme that the department has failed to roll out properly. It just can’t seem to get the design of schemes correct. Look at what the Ombudsman had to say about the nursing home scheme,” Mr Mac Lochlainn said.