Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

There were no records apparently in my Department, according to Mr. Travers. He got these records from the Department of Finance. He got the two memoranda to Government. It is a fact that in the report that on 5 February the late John Boland took a memorandum to Government. A memorandum was put to John Boland, who was the caretaker Minister as the Labour Party had withdrawn from Government, to implement the decisions of the budget. That budget brought in the concept of inpatient charges which had to be legislated for. In the context of that memorandum, he apparently, in his own handwriting, stated he wanted to include this. From where the knowledge for that came I do not know, but he wanted to include this. The Government agreed to the drafting of legislation accordingly.

The election was held a few days later and a new Government came in. The same memorandum was brought back to the new Government in March of that year. The decision was proceeded with in terms of the budgetary decision. There is a note on the Government decision that apparently states "proceed as relevant". Mr. Travers refers to the "pinks", the notes that the Secretary General to the Government takes, which are not the formal Government decision. They note that the Taoiseach, the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health were to meet to review this issue. That is the end of the paper trail and that is all I can tell the Deputy.

I read the Official Report subsequently on that legislation and although Fine Gael proposed this legislation, it voted against it and the new Government took it through the Dáil. There are many things we all learn from this process. The Government that had signed off on this ended up in opposition opposing it, something on which we could all reflect.

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