David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There were people in similar institutions to these three homes, and it was the accepted HSE view and determination at the time that the repayment scheme was put in place, who did not qualify. These people did not make any applications, and if they did, they certainly did not appeal. The only three homes which appealed are the three homes I have mentioned. There were 512 applicants in those homes who were paid €20 million. That is fine. There was an estimate that there could be, and are, other institutions similar to those three homes with a potential liability of €360 million. The issue here is that there was no effort at that point to establish whether or not there was any liability. Is that not the case? There was no proactive effort by the Department at that time to establish whether or not others would have qualified for redress.

Again, in the memorandum, which I must repeat, it states: “who would have similar potential claims”. These words are in a memo. It is very strong in its statement regarding those “who would have similar potential claims”. No effort was made, however, to establish who those individuals were, or if it was, it was certainly kept secret and such individuals were certainly not notified of this.