Report on nursing home fees scandal be published next week

Minister for Health Mary Harney has promised to publish the Travers Report into the nursing home fees controversy next Tuesday.

The report by Forfas official John Travers was commissioned to uncover how the illegal levying of such fees on medical cards holders was allowed to continue since 1976.

The practice was halted in December after the Attorney General warned the charges were legally unsound.

An attempt by the Government to retrospectively legalise the fees was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last month, leaving the State open to compensation claims of up to €1bn.

Speaking in the Dáil this morning, Mary Harney denied suggestions that the Travers Report was being delayed until after the upcoming by-elections in Meath and Kildare North.

"I hope to have it to hand tomorrow, bring it to Cabinet on Tuesday and publish it on Tuesday," she said.