The former minister for health Micheál Martin said today that ministers can only bear responsibility if they are fully briefed and that in respect of the nursing home charges issue, he wasn't.
In the first two hours of his evidence to the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children this afternoon Mr Martin also hit back at claims made by his former department's secretary general that he was aware of illegal nursing homes charges as early as 2003.
Michael Kelly, who was removed from his post after the Travers report was published, claimed yesterday that Mr Martin was briefed at least twice on the 29-year-old issue, including before a management meeting in December 2003.
Mr Kelly said: "I am quite clear that I did alert him to this and I don't have any doubt about that."
Referring to the December 2003 meeting, Mr Martin said to the committee: "Is it credible that for a few minutes on the way from the foyer of a hotel through a labyrinth of corridors and steps and stairs, that somebody is being adequately briefed on a issue of this political significance. I don't think that has any credence."
Mr Martin said he strongly agreed with the conclusions of the Travers report and believed it to be fair. He angrily dismissed some deputies who had rubbished the report because, as he said, it doesn't say what they wanted it to say.
Labour Committee member Liz McManus accused Mr Martin of blaming everybody except himself and said that at least Mr Kelly had shouldered some responsibility.
Mr Martin responded that he was fed up "of you and others for the last two months rattling off 'he must have known because we believe he must have known'. I've just had enough of it now. That is untrue."
He said the "clarity of information" on the issue was never available to him. "At no time did I shy away from sensitive political issues because they had financial implications or would reflect badly on the Government. "I'm clear in my own mind I didn't."
The report was carried out by former head of Forfás John Travers and found failures by the Department of Health at the highest levels since the mid-1970s to take action on the issue amounting to a "long-term systemic corporate failure" by the department.
The State faces having to refund up to €2 billion to an estimated 300,000 people who have been illegally charged.
