Dail Report: Former minister for health Micheál Martin told the Dáil that the issue of nursing-home charges should have been brought clearly to the attention of successive ministers, but it was not.
He insisted he had never shied away from issues because of cost implications or because they might reflect badly on the Government.
In a staunch defence of his role in the controversy over nursing home charges, Mr Martin rejected calls in the Dáil for his resignation, and claimed the Travers report on the history of the controversy vindicated him.
It showed that information to ministers was provided "at the most superficial of levels" and was "completely inadequate to what was required".
Mr Martin reiterated that he first became aware of the matter as a serious issue "when the Attorney General's advice came in late last year".
The Travers report showed that when the medical card was extended in 2001 through legislation to the over-70s, "no submission was made to me that existing charges were illegal and that they should be regularised through the legislation". The legislation to extend the medical card scheme, however, ultimately forced clarification of the issues.
He said there had been an "ongoing cycle of spin and misrepresentation". People had repeatedly tried to pre-empt and prejudge the Travers report. "Now that it has been published, the same people are choosing to ignore facts which don't suit their arguments."
In a particular jibe at Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte, Mr Martin said: "The culture of playing the man and not the ball and foundation-rocking is now so all-pervasive for the opposition that they have no interest in serious debate".
During a question-and-answer session, Mr Rabbitte described Mr Martin, now Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as "a dead man walking as far as the Cabinet is concerned", and asked if the Minister took people for fools that they would believe he was unaware of the issue until last year.
Mr Martin responded that Mr Rabbitte "had his fanciful script written months ago". He stressed a file on the issue was not given to him and nor was there any record of it being given to him.
Asked if he thought the Health Department secretary general Michael Kelly was telling lies, Mr Martin said he did not want to cast aspersions on anyone's integrity. He had given his own perspective, and others had given theirs.
In his statement to the Dáil, Mr Martin stressed that at a key meeting in December 2003 at which nursing-home charges were dealt with, they were just one of 14 items on the agenda and were specifically intended for "brief mention only".
The dominant issue was the health reform programme, including the future positions of the health board chief executives, and it was followed by a meeting on the Hanly proposals.
Mr Martin said the charges were dealt with before he arrived, "specifically because they were not viewed as requiring my presence. It is certainly not a case of me having missed the discussion because I was late - and all of the persons who attended the meeting confirmed that the item merited only a short discussion."
