Minister for Health Mary Harney will today publish a report into illegal charges levied on nursing home patients which is likely to criticise officials in her own department.
The 150-page report by former Forfás chief John Travers will dominate the political agenda in the run-up to byelections in Meath and Kildare North on Friday.
With criticism of certain officials considered inevitable after Ms Harney said there was "systematic maladministration" in her department, Mr Travers's findings on the quality of information officials gave to ministers were not public last night.
The "maladministration" factor is likely to be raised in Opposition questions to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in the Dáil today. While successive governments never faced up to the fact that the system had no legislative footing, a finding that any individual Minister knew of the problem would be very damaging.
Ms Harney's predecessor, Micheál Martin, may come under particular pressure today because he is known to have left a December 2003 meeting at which the legal difficulties surrounding the charges was discussed.
The report is likely to say that the illegal practice became embedded over time, even though questions were raised about it on several occasions in the last 30 years.
It is also likely to say there was a reluctance over three decades to defend the practice in the courts, a finding that is likely to be read as an implicit recognition that the practice was questionable.
Last night Fine Gael again brought Mr Martin into the frame by saying he should have been briefed on the legal doubts about the charges on six occasions. Fine Gael health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said Mr Martin should have been aware of the difficulty from December 2000, when the government decided to introduce automatic eligibility to all people aged over 70.
The Government is losing €2.5 million per week because it still cannot legally charge for nursing home care. The cost of repaying charges levied illegally could be €2 billion.
