Results 23,081-23,100 of 24,635 for speaker:Mary Harney

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: No, I will deal with the issue. I dealt with it earlier. I asked for a report for the Government. It was incomplete, it was inaccurate, and that is not acceptable to me.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: The Deputy should ask the Minister, Deputy Martin, where he was. I do not know where he was——

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: ——but in the number of months since this issue arose I did not think of asking him "Where the hell were you and why weren't you there?"

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: In any Department a Minister is involved in thousands of meetings every year. Sometimes one goes to all the meetings, other times one attends part of a meeting. Decisions would never be made or actions taken if we were attending meetings all the time. That is not an issue. I wish to correct something I said earlier. I said Fine Gael voted against that legislation but it abstained. I want to...

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: I have no problem with accepting accountability for my actions in respect of this matter.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: I have made it clear that I will do that now and in the future. The Deputy should ask the Minister, Deputy Martin, about his accessibility. I think he is very accessible. Questions about the Minister should be directed to him, to be fair to all of us, including him, and to the House. I do not doubt that political responsibility has to be accepted when political errors are made.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: That is a long-standing——

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: We are acting on the findings of the report.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: Any fair-minded person who reads the report could not call on people to resign on the basis of it.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: The Bill was introduced for a number of reasons. As I have said in this House, I believe we were acting in good faith when we decided to introduce the Bill. In other words, there was no legal knowledge in the Department of Health and Children that the matter was unconstitutional and did not have a safe legal basis. That is a fact. If one reads the opinion——

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: No.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: No.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: The Deputies can read the report that was prepared for the Government.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: It is at the back of the Travers report. It was during the Christmas holiday break that the Keane judgment came to light.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: As I said in my speech, the discovery process for the Supreme Court hearings started in parallel with the discovery process for the Travers report. I remember getting a call and being told about the Keane judgment. I was surprised to hear that the Government had been advised in such strong terms in 1978 that this was wrong. As a result, the State did not argue in the Supreme Court case that...

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: The Travers report makes clear that the foundation decision was taken in 1976 and not in 2002, although it points out that things were brought into focus in 2002. The commission on health funding drew attention to the matter in the late 1980s, as did the health strategy of 1994. The Department received legal advice on the issue in 1975-76. As Mr. Travers states in his report, a great deal of...

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: Litigation is pending in that regard. When this matter arose last December, I asked the assistant secretary of the Department, Mr. Smyth, to conduct an audit of the regulations which impose charges so that a legal opinion on their status could be acquired. That audit is under way and will be finalised as quickly as possible. We have been working extremely hard on it. Meetings will be held...

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: On Deputy Ó Caoláin's question, I do not know the precise number of cases. I did say — this is in the report — that anyone who challenged the making of the payments did not have to pay. The advice from the Department to the health board was not to pursue the matter legally. When invited by the registrar of the wards of court to pursue it legally, the Department's advice was that this...

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: I do not know whether people were refunded if they had been paying for a couple of years. I will revert to the Deputy on this matter.

Report on Long-Stay Care Charges: Motion. (10 Mar 2005)

Mary Harney: They were certainly not charged going forward. I am not in a position to state whether they were refunded. On Deputy Healy's question, legal advice was obtained on the nursing home subvention. Where people are in public beds or in beds contracted by a public authority in a private nursing home the State is exposed. However, issues arise regarding the nursing home subvention. In this regard,...