Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On the nursing home scheme, in fairness to Deputy Burke and the other members of the committee, that report was commenced in 2018 and, as I understand it, was due to be published in March 2019. I do not expect Mr. Watt to respond in respect of what happened back then because he has only been in his role in the Department since this time last year. The committee completed a report on the fair deal scheme and its recommendations were accepted by the Department in full. That was 11 months ago. The point made by Deputy Burke is that this report was published by the Department at 9 o’clock last night. Can Mr. Watt understand the frustration felt by the Deputy and other members at the committee at being treated in that way? We make recommendations that were accepted in full and 11 months later we still had not got the report but, hey presto, the night before the meeting, when everybody had left, the report came through. I am saying this to Mr. Watt as Chairman of the committee. To me, that seems like bad practice and to be a smart alec manner in which to treat this committee.