Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In regard to the governance and legal issues referred to by Deputy Farrell, overall across the Government they very much sit with the individual line Departments. We monitor overall governance issues and become involved in issues in which the Department has a very explicit role. In terms of the balance between the management of public expenditure and the fulfilment of the obligations Departments have to citizens, I have an overall role with regard to the allocation of funding to each Department but I then depend on individual Departments to seek to get the balance right between the use of that money and the competing demands with regard to it.

On the point about the recent public debate on nursing home charges, I will very briefly refer back to the report on this topic that was published by the Attorney General yesterday. In the report, he made clear the rights and expectations of citizens who were in nursing homes that some of the cost of that care would be supported by the State. That was very explicitly legislated for by the Oireachtas on many different occasions. What was not legislated for in this particular area of public interest is that the State had an explicit role to meet the cost if a citizen for any reason needed to avail of a service through a private sector service provider. That has been made very clear in the report from the Attorney General yesterday. To deal with the broad question regarding how this is dealt with by the Government today, it is a balance that needs to be struck by each Department, and we play an overall role in the allocation of funding.