Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 July 2018

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of David CullinaneDavid Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I recall we only dealt with this in private session in the past. However, since witnesses have been before the committee in public session I want to go back to something. The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission examined allegations of price fixing and the issues contained in the leaked copy of the minutes of the meeting attended by the chairperson of HIQA.

I had put to the head of Nursing Homes Ireland that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission said in the report that nothing happened. The report did not say issues were not discussed. In fact, the agreement signed by both parties states that all the stuff in the leaked minutes should not happen in future. It did not state the matters were never discussed. It simply said they should not happen in future. That was the point I made to Nursing Homes Ireland.

The commission was unable to penalise or sanction Nursing Homes Ireland for something that did not happen. We never said it happened because the CCPC received strong legal advice at all stages to the effect that it was crossing a line and had to stop. That was my reading of it.

All I am saying is that when the head of Nursing Homes Ireland was before the committee I thought he was rather evasive in answering the questions, to be frank. He has an entitlement to be, but he was simply not answering the questions put by a number of us. He simply stonewalled us. That was his right but he basically kept coming back to the report which vindicated that the issue never happened and that the word "boycott" was never used and so on. He would not answer a question about that when it was put to him. All I am saying is that the signed agreement by both parties essentially stated that all the issues of contention and concern to the committee in the memorandum should not happen in future. That tells me some of those issues probably were discussed at the meeting.

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