Leo: Nursing home charges ‘sound policy’

CLAIMS HE ‘SIGNED OFF’ ON STRATEGY

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar “signed off” on the Government’s legal strategy on nursing home charges when he was health minister, it has been claimed.

A 2016 memo for the assistant secretary in the Department of Health in 2016 said “the minister” had agreed to continue the strategy.

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Health last night denied that this related to the Taoiseach.

They said: “It is the clear understanding of officials in the Department of Health that the reference in an internal briefing in May 2016 does not refer to Minister Varadkar, as was, but refers to a previous Minister as the decision referred to was made well before his time.”

When questioned on the controversy in the Dail yesterday by Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, Mr Varadkar has conceded that he “must have been briefed” about the legal strategy – but insisted he “would have agreed” to sign off on it if asked as it was “sound policy”.

The Fine Gael leader also insisted that the story has been “misrepresented” and that it “would not have been a case of [people] just going to the nursing home of their choice and then asking the Government to pick up the bill”.

There have been allegations in recent days that some people were “illegally charged” for nursing home stays.

In 1970, it was decided people with medical cards were entitled to free nursing home stays. But some card holders were placed in private homes due to capacity constraints and paid for care.

Settlement

Documents from a whistleblower suggest the Department of Health and the Government accepted that the State would not win cases about charging and that they would be settled out of court. The settlement was offered at the latest possible opportunity, meaning that only those with money could pursue a case.

On Monday, Mr Varadkar said that he was “never party to devising or agreeing a legal strategy in relation to nursing home charges”.

He also told the Dail yesterday: “I do not know if I was specifically asked to sign off on it being continued. But if I had been asked, I would have agreed to do so.

“This was a sound policy approach and a legitimate legal strategy by the Government at the time, by previous Governments, and by Governments since.”

Attorney General Rossa Fanning will prepare a briefing document on the issue for next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.