McDowell urged to explain advice on nursing home charges

Justice Minister Michael McDowell must explain legal advice he gave the Government on charging patients for long term care in nursing homes, it was claimed today.

John Gormley, Green Party TD, called for the former Attorney General to be hauled before a cross-party committee to answer allegations he dismissed warnings the costs were illegal.

“It is crucial that the committee establishes whether Minister McDowell, when he was Attorney General, advised that the charges for long stay patients in nursing homes were not illegal,” Mr Gormley said.

“If he did then we need to know why and on what basis.”

The Green Party chairman warned any advice that charges for long stay patients in nursing homes were legal conflicted the views of the former Ombudsman Kevin Murphy and the current Attorney General Rory Brady.

Deirdre Gillane, a senior advisor at the Department of Health, yesterday told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that in 2001 Mr McDowell, then Attorney General, dismissed concerns expressed in Ombudsman Murphy’s report on the issue.

“Now that we know that the Ombudsman’s concerns were in fact well-founded, the committee must establish if in fact Minister McDowell gave legal advice which conflicts with the current Attorney General’s assessment,” Mr Gormley insisted.

The committee, which is examining the findings of the Travers report into the unconstitutional charging, looks set to run for three months before reporting on management and administration in the Department of Health.

John Travers, who gave several hours of evidence to the committee, has said he believed the nursing-home charges issue stemmed from corporate failure in the department involving civil servants and politicians over many years.