Martin denies responsibility on charges

Former minister for health Micheál Martin has said he bears no responsibility for the illegal nursing home charges controversy.

In three hours of evidence to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children yesterday, Mr Martin strongly denied assertions by his former secretary general at the Department of Health, Michael Kelly, that he had been briefed on the problem on two occasions.

However, Mr Martin admitted he had not read briefing material that contained a summary of legal opinion suggesting that charges levied on medical card patients in public nursing homes were illegal. The Minister also criticised what he claimed were misrepresentations, innuendoes and rumours in circulation in Leinster House, and he strongly denied he had taken or hidden any department files.

He said if he had been aware of all the information on the nursing home charges, which was subsequently outlined in the Travers Report, he "would have taken action immediately to address an issue which we only now know has been around since 1976".

He rejected the claim made on Wednesday by Mr Kelly that he had briefed the then minister in the foyer of the Gresham Hotel in December 2003 as he arrived for a meeting with health board chiefs.

"Is it credible that for a few minutes on the way from the foyer of a hotel through a labyrinth of corridors and steps and stairs, that somebody is being adequately briefed on an issue of this political significance?" Mr Martin asked.

He said he had no recollection of a second discussion on the charges issue which Mr Kelly claimed took place in the department in the spring of 2004.

He said there were no records of anything being decided at such a meeting and he did not believe any such discussion had taken place with Mr Kelly.

Mr Martin confirmed he had not read briefing material prepared for him in advance of the meeting in the Gresham.

He said the material had only arrived in his office on the evening before, when he had been out of Dublin. He had attended Cabinet the next morning and had later had a meeting with the US ambassador before heading to the Gresham.

He said it was "unacceptable" for briefing material to be provided so late. He described the legal opinion in the briefing document as "significant". However, he said it was external legal opinion and that only after an issue had been considered by the Attorney General did it become "legal advice to a minister".

He said the nursing home charge issue "was not a big ticket item" at the meeting in the Gresham, which was dominated by healthcare reform.

"The idea that any person who had read the briefing and been present for the discussion at the meeting must have known about the full nature of the problem simply doesn't stand up to objective scrutiny," he said.

Asked by Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus who should be held responsible, Mr Martin said he accepted the conclusions of the Travers Report that there had been a long-term systemic corporate failure.

But he said he genuinely believed he did not bear any responsibility.

Ms McManus accused him of seeking to blame everybody except himself. Mr Martin said he was fed up of "you and others rattling on for the last two months" suggesting he must have known.