Nursing home charges - Blame game overshadows real issues

IT is regrettable that the report by the Oireachtas Committee on Health on illegal charges imposed on residents in nursing homes was clouded in controversy even before it was published yesterday.

When the issue erupted last year, and it became clear that the taxpayers would be left with a bill of at least €1 billion, it was obvious the blame game would commence.

The scandalous situation whereby the State illegally charged people in nursing homes had gone on for decades and spanned more than one government.

Consequently, it is ludicrous of the official report to suggest that nobody, other than shadowy figures in the Department of Health, was to blame, endorsing as it does the Travers Report.

Because of the row between the different parties, the public perception now has to be that there was a cover-up to protect political figures, and the figure deemed to be the protected species in this instance is former Health Minister Mícheál Martin. Yet, Mr Martin was declared to be exonerated of any blame by the Travers Report which chose to blame what it described as “systematic maladministration”, pointing the finger at senior officials, rather than ministers.

More realistically, the present Health Minister and Tánaiste Mary Harney acknowledged during a Dáil debate that there had been “some lapses” on the part of ministers. It stands to reason that there had to have been, otherwise the illegal charges would not have continued over the past three decades.

The conclusions the Fine Gael and Labour Party published as a dissenting opinion consisted, largely, of observations and recommendations in relation to procedural matters and how they might be improved.

It is perplexing, in retrospect, to see where both sides diverged because the official report generally coincides with the concern expressed in the dissent that lack of clarity and confusion of the roles of Ministers and special advisers was unhelpful.

The fact that Fine Gael and Labour accused Mr Martin of failing to accept his responsibility as minister, as laid out in the Public Service Management Act, 1997, was a harsh view of what was an historical problem.

To pinpoint one minister was invidious because, as Ms Harney accepted, there had been some lapses on the part of Ministers, not just one.

Mr Martin’s lapse was to have not read a briefing file on illegal nursing home charges at the time, and it is hard to disagree with committee chairman John Moloney that this was not a resigning issue.

At that stage, the amount owing to nursing home residents from the State had accrued to an enormous figure, which did not happen while Mr Martin was the relevant minister.

What is more important now is that the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee be taken on board and implemented to ensure such a scandal doesn’t happen again. Should the recommendations in the dissent be valuable in helping to achieve that aim, not just in Health, but in other departments, then cognisance should be taken of those as well.

It is about time this disgraceful episode in the history of the State be laid to rest with the restoration of funds to those who are entitled to them.