Minister must devise administrative solution to Grace costs

The health minister must urgently devise an “administrative solution” to a problem confronting the commission investigating the treatment of the intellectually disabled woman known as Grace, lawyers for the commission have told the High Court.

The problem is, due to a lacuna in the relevant law, Grace cannot recover her legal costs of representation and of her involvement in the commission despite her being at the centre of it.

The President of the High Court, Mr Justice Peter Kelly, has directed a hearing tomorrow aimed at ensuring the problem is resolved. There was “no way to cut this Gordian knot” except to make the minister a party to a formal application, he said.