Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Watt and the team for attending. It has to be acknowledged we have a much fairer system of health and nursing home care than in the past. The dialogue needs to move towards more in-home care than nursing homes, but there are situations, no matter how good a family is, where there is a need for nursing home care. The Attorney General’s briefing published a couple of weeks ago referred in point 114 to private care, stating: “Although a number of the private cases have been settled, most of these cases have not been settled.” Point 129 states: “it is clear ... that the Department acted prudently in settling a small number of claims involving care in private nursing homes rather than risking an adverse outcome in a test case, which could have provoked many more historic cases, all for the account of the taxpayer.” Presumably those cases were settled on a no-fault, non-disclosure basis.