The Minister for Enterprise, Mr Martin, has said he was not present when a high-level meeting of health officials heard of legal problems with the practice of charging patients in long-stay institutions for their care.
Mr Martin's stewardship of the charging regime when he was Minister for Health came into focus yesterday after the current Minister and Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said she had asked a retired head of Forfas, Mr John Travers, to investigate the management of the issue by the Department of Health.
Ms Harney published minutes yesterday that listed Mr Martin as an attendee of a meeting on December 16th last year at which the Department said it was necessary to get a definitive legal assessment of the long-stay charges regime.
"The varying views of the different legal advisers were noted in the context of the legislation clarifying existing eligibility framework," said the minute.
Despite the acknowledgement of difficulties a year ago, the charging regime was deemed illegal by the Attorney General last month. This prompted the Government to rush emergency legislation through the Oireachtas yesterday.
While Ms Harney has insisted that the Government acted as soon as it could, the development has proved controversial after Ms Harney said last week that the Department first knew of the legal problem in late 2002.
However, there were fresh allegations last night from the Irish Nursing Home Organisation which claimed that the Department of Health sought legal advice on the legality of nursing home patients' charges as early as 2001.
As the Dáil debated the emergency legislation, Fine Gael's health spokesman, Dr Liam Twomey, seized on the meeting minute as evidence that Mr Martin was "fully briefed" on the problem a year ago.
He contrasted this with the Minister's comment to RTÉ on Wednesday that he did not know of the problem until last month when the AG's advice was received.
"I wasn't at the meeting for that particular section," said Mr Martin last night. Stating that he had arrived late, he said the focus of the meeting was on the Government's health reform programme. His understanding from the minute was that the question of the charges was being dealt with in the context of a review of the legislation governing eligibility for health services.
After describing Mr Martin as a "plonker" in the Dáil, Mr Twomey said in a statement later that Mr Martin failed to make a priority of the issue.
His remarks were echoed by Labour's health spokeswoman, Ms Liz McManus, who said that Mr Martin's absence during the specific discussion was irrelevant.