Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

I wanted to put the record straight because Senator Phelan misquoted me earlier. I do not mind criticism but Senators should quote people directly instead of misquoting them. If they did so, they would be doing politics a better service. The point I made yesterday in the Dáil was that in trying to be as helpful as possible, the Tánaiste, in addition to her speech on Second Stage in the Lower House, also published documentation relating to this matter. One of those documents included the minutes and attendance of a meeting that took place on Tuesday, 16 December 2003, at which senior management from the Department of Health and Children were present, along with health board CEOs. As I mentioned, three Ministers were present, namely, the then Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Martin, and his Ministers of State, Deputy Callely and Deputy Tim O'Malley.

The point I made was that item No. 4 on the minutes concerned the long-stay charges for over 70s. The Secretary General of the Department informed us that the Minister, Deputy Martin, was not present at the meeting when that matter was being discussed. That is as much as I said about it. Let the Minister, Deputy Martin, say what he has to say about it but I do not want people to accuse me of having said certain things about him. Apart from what I heard in the interviews he has given, I know no more than Senators do about what the Minister knew.