Results 3,061-3,080 of 26,350 for speaker:David Cullinane

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: It would be incredible for us to have to accept that only those three homes which lodged an appeal had their appeals upheld, that they hit the jackpot, just happened to be the people who were entitled and that they got paid. The thinking being presented here is that anybody else who was analogous, who did not appeal or apply, were people who were thought of as not entitled to this redress....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: It is actually not that complex at all, Mr. Watt.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: I will bring him back to what happened. It is complex in respect of trying to resolve it now, but was not complex at the time, which is my point. I ask Mr. Watt to bear with me, please?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: There were people in similar institutions to these three homes, and it was the accepted HSE view and determination at the time that the repayment scheme was put in place, who did not qualify. These people did not make any applications, and if they did, they certainly did not appeal. The only three homes which appealed are the three homes I have mentioned. There were 512 applicants in those...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: It was not contested because the appeals officer’s decision was upheld.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: There may well be other issues. I am not talking about them but I am talking specifically-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: I did not write the 2011 memo.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: It was written by the Department. Mr. Watt was a Secretary General in the Department where the Minister was furnished with a copy of this memo, incidentally. Leaving that aside-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: The memo was not written by me and was very clear that there were residents who would have similar potential claims. There was an estimate, which Mr. Watt says is probably too high. It is reasonable for any person to look at this to say that there were certainly analogous residents would have had a similar claim, but that there was no proactive work done by the Department. Rather, if we...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: Does Mr. Watt accept that we need to resolve it and to establish whether or not there were people who would have qualified had they applied under the scheme or had appealed, that their appeal would have been upheld but, because they did not, they simply accepted the judgment of the HSE, which was that they did not qualify. They, therefore, did not make any application. It would be unfair if...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: If there are, what will then happen?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: There is a strong possibility that that is the case.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: The memo was not conjecture. It says “would”, does it not?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: Does Mr. Watt understand the point we are making-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: ------in that there is a potential unfairness here which may need to be resolved. That trawl needs to be done and if there are people who, through no fault of their own may have ended up in that situation. These were people with disabilities who probably would not have had, or their families would not have had, the means to challenge this and just accepted what the HSE said. It would be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: Mr. Watt has a responsibility to do that, I would say.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: You did comment on it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: I wish to deal with the issue of people in private nursing homes. I am reading from the 2011 memo. We asked the Department to submit to the committee the memos that were given to Ministers in 2011 and 2016 as well as the notes from 2017. The Secretary General stated that releasing those documents was a matter for the Government, which it is. Can we write to the Minister and ask that they...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: The Attorney General's memo stated that the health boards had a dual strategy of public nursing homes in the first instance and, if those were not available, private ones.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Nursing Home Charges: Department of Health (15 Feb 2023)

David Cullinane: Mr. Watt will agree that it was like a lottery system. If a medical card holder happened to get a public nursing home place, he or she was compensated, but if he or she was one of the unlucky medical card holders who had sought public nursing home places but, because none was available, ended up in private nursing homes, there was no compensation for him or her, through no fault of his or...