Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

It is not widely available, but available under privilege. They were all at the same meeting and all facing the same cases. The advice they were getting from the Department for many years, going back to 1978, was that they should not contest. Therefore, if one long-term bed occupant had a lawyer who could help him or her to take a case, he or she would no longer be charged while somebody not so fortunate in the bed beside him or her was charged in all those years. Besides the legal issues involved here, there are significant inequality issues that are unacceptable.

There is no doubt on the reading of the legal advice that the long-term charges issue should have been put on a statutory legal footing. The report makes that clear. However, the legal advice Governments must follow is the legal advice of the Attorney General. It is remarkable that his advice was never sought over almost 30 years. There is no evidence anywhere to suggest, as can be seen from the Travers report and even going back to 1976 when the famous circular was issued, that the Office of the Attorney General was consulted. This is what I find extraordinary. It was almost in the ether that this was fine and the attitude was that because we had always done it, we should continue to do it. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that we should not ignore legal advice or the need to seek it to cover areas where one is raising substantial amounts of money, as we are doing through this route.

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