Committee to begin hearings on nursing home charges

The Oireachtas Health Committee will today hope to establish political accountability for the illegal nursing home charges scandal when it begins hearings on the issue.

Senior civil servant John Travers, who authored the Travers Report into the 29-year fiasco, will be the first of a number of witnesses to be quizzed by committee members over the next five weeks.

Health Minister Mary Harney has estimated that the total cost of refunding over 300,000 elderly patients and their families could be as high as €2bn. She wants to limit pay-outs through the Statute of Limitations Act.

Opposition health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said it was incredible that the Secretary General of the Health Department, Michael Kelly, was transferred after the Travers Report was published but no current or previous minister accepted responsibility.

“We have seen a senior civil servant fall on his sword for a departmental failing which a minister should have been politically accountable for,” he said.

Mr Kelly and former Health Minister Micheál Martin are due to appear before the all-party committee next week, along with Ministers of State Tom O’Malley and Ivor Callely.

Dr Twomey said that he regretted that the committee was ultimately limited in its scope of enquiry due to restrictive terms of reference laid down by the Government.

He said he favoured a US-style system of grand jury trials, whereby committees could compel witnesses before hearings, unfettered by government control.

Following the hearings in Leinster House, the Oireachtas Committee will compile a report on management and administration in the Health Department in relation to the illegal charges and presented to the Government.