Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies for their questions. On the historical nursing home charges relating to private nursing homes, I emphasise again that this does not relate to anyone who is currently in a nursing home today or who has been in recent years. It relates to charges prior to the 2005-06 period. The matter was resolved prospectively when the fair deal scheme was set up in 2009, which is the legal basis by which anyone can receive a place in a nursing home and sets out the contributions that they have to make towards that, if any. The State and the taxpayer have compensated those who paid charges in public nursing homes at a cost of €480 million. That was the right thing to do. It was done at the time. The situation with private nursing homes is different. That was explained at the time in 2006. The Government does not accept that medical card patients ever had an unqualified entitlement to free private nursing home care. Even today, medical card patients who choose or are forced to go privately do not get a refund. Where we pay for private care for people with medical cards, it is done by prior agreement. There is a system in place. People cannot just bill the Government after the fact.

It was never the intention of the Government or Oireachtas to create such an entitlement, which is clear from the debates at the time; that matters. Some cases have been settled; others have not. We await a report from the Attorney General. The legal strategy has been misrepresented and memos have been selectively quoted. It is clear from the memos I have seen, though I am sure I have not seen them all, that the strategy was to identify a test case or lead case and to defend it. The State sets out what its bona fidedefence would be. There are three lines of defence. Any one of them would have been adequate. As I mentioned, some cases were settled but not all. That was done on an individual basis.

The issue of the disability payment is different. The legal advice is different and much clearer. I have not seen the 2009 memo. I just saw the programme on "Prime Time" last night. I have seen the 2011 memo but only recently. I will look into it further. As I said earlier, this relates to prior to 2007. The disability allowance has been paid in full for the past 15 years to people with disabilities and in long-term care. It relates to the period before that. That is significant.

The three coalition leaders have discussed the nursing homes issue, as has the whole Cabinet. We have not discussed the issue of the disability payment yet but I am sure we will. I would caution people not to read memos in isolation. There may be many different memos and briefing documents that might provide a different picture of things. I caution people not to selectively read or selectively quote memos. Government memos can be 50 or 60 pages long. It is easy to take out a sentence or paragraph and create a particular impression from that. When the memo is seen in totality, with all of the other memos that came before and after it, the situation may look very different. I know Members know that deep down, although they might not want to bother with that. They will all have files or documents in their offices from which one paragraph or page can be taken that would not create an accurate impression of what the entire file looks like. I know Members know that and it does not suit them to know that, but they know it.

On tax on investment funds, the Government keeps all tax matters under review. There are finance Bills every year. I am not at liberty to say what might be in the Bill, but it will become clear when it is published.

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