Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Did the Tánaiste read this report in 2001? It made very clear that successive Governments, including the one he was part of, knew that the basis on which these charges were being levied had no legal basis. He has gone on to repeat what the Taoiseach said earlier this week about the State still not conceding that people who were in private nursing homes but had medical cards had the right to have the fees paid. The Ombudsman report I am referring to noted in 2001, when the Tánaiste was the Minister for Health: "The health boards appear to be directing such patients and their families towards private care without in anyway acknowledging the boards' own responsibilities in this area." People were being forced into private nursing homes because the State had failed to provide them the public nursing home care they were entitled to and the Tánaiste knew this. He knew the charges that were being levied had no legal basis long before courts made decisions on it and he did nothing about it. Vulnerable people had to fight and face hostile legal strategies. It is immoral.

See this speech in context