Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Okay. The Attorney General's report is 192 paragraphs long, so I find it extraordinary that the issue we are discussing – people who paid for private nursing home care because they could not get public beds – is not addressed in it. This is the real issue. What is addressed is the strategy that was employed to avoid repaying the illegal charges or, as Mr. Watt says, for having acted ultra vires. Normal people's interpretation of this – it has been said to me by a constituent – is that governments stole money and did not give it back. A strategy was developed in order not to give it back. The Attorney General addresses how people made a choice to go into private nursing homes, but not once in any shape or form in the 192 paragraphs does he mention the fact that that choice had to be made on foot of public beds not being available. Does Mr. Watt agree with that?