Allegations of censorship as report published

Travers report: The publication of the report of the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children into the illegal nursing home charges controversy yesterday descended into a political row.

Opposition members claimed they had been censored and Government representatives maintained Fine Gael and Labour were only interested in seeking the head of former minister for health Micheál Martin.

The chairman of the committee, Fianna Fáil TD John Maloney, accepted that there was no consensus among members on the findings of the report on the controversy.

However, he denied that the views of the Opposition had been censored for political reasons.

Fine Gael, Labour, the Greens and Independent members of the committee expressed concern that the report did not deal with political responsibility for the illegal charges controversy, which is now expected to cost around €1 billion.

Fine Gael and Labour members said that their submissions, which had been critical of Mr Martin, had been vetoed from the final report by the Government majority on the committee.

The committee report, which was published last night, called for urgent clarification of the responsibilities of ministers and the extent to which they can be reasonably held accountable for the actions of their departments.

It also maintained that there was a need to support ministers in the exercise of their responsibility. It said that the committee noted the confusion and disagreement over the roles of ministers of State and special advisers in the Department of Health.

It suggested that the Government should investigate the adoption of a "cabinet" - style system, similar to that in place in the EU Commission and other EU states.

The report also called for reforms of the top-level management advisory committee of the Department of Health, with outsiders being brought in to assist in discussions on strategic decision making.

The committee report urged that improvements be introduced for dealing with risk management.

It also proposed that special attention be paid to devising new models of strategic management as part of the public sector modernisation programme.

Mr Maloney said that the committee endorsed the findings of the official Travers report which found that while ministers could have probed further, greater responsibility for the charges issue lay with administrators.

Mr Maloney said that it would have been best practice for Mr Martin, his minister of State Ivor Callely and his special advisers to have read briefing material on the charges issues prepared for them by officials.

However, he said that it was important to consider whether such files were presented to them on a formal or casual basis. He said that there was no question of Mr Martin resigning.

Progressive Democrats member of the committee Fiona O'Malley said that it was "disappointing" that Mr Martin had not read the briefing material.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus said that "the clear agenda of the Government members of the committee had been to protect their ministers from criticism".

She said that the absence of the issue of political responsibility in the report was "the elephant in the corner".

John Gormley of the Green Party said that the report had been finalised on the basis of Government majoritarianism. Independent Dr Jerry Cowley said that "democracy had gone out the window".

Mr Maloney said that he had hoped to secure a consensus on the committee but that it was apparent from an early stage that this could not be achieved.

He said the "real issue" for some Opposition members from day one had been to focus on Micheál Martin.