Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that he was never party to a legal strategy in relation to nursing home charges.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show, Mr Varadkar said he did not receive the so-called ‘stealth’ memo in relation to the handling of legal claims around refunds over the State’s failure to provide nursing home care to older people.
He was responding to a news report that first appeared in the Irish Mail on Sunday, outlining how successive governments had followed guidance in the memo to limit State liability in payments for public nursing home care that older people were entitled to.
Mr Varadkar said the issue related to a 2011 memo which it appeared had been circulated to four members of the Oireachtas, none of whom was a member of the current government.
“I haven't seen it and didn't at the time. We're trying to check out all the facts. What is true to say is that the true picture will be more complex and different from how it was presented ... this is a memo from 12 years ago, it would appear.
“It talks about contingent liabilities that never arose. It said that the compensation cost for the public nursing homes would be €5billion... it was nine percent of that figure. Those figures are not in any way still valid.”
The Taoiseach said it was his understanding that the issue related to nursing home charges prior to the introduction of the Fair Deal Scheme. “This is all pre-2009, there hasn't been a case lodged since 2014.
“People in private nursing homes argued that because they had a medical card they were entitled to a full refund of the cost regardless of the cost or regardless of which nursing home they chose — the State has never conceded that.
“But there have been some cases that have been settled and it will be the case from time to time that Government departments will settle, but they're not all settled, there was never a test case that went to trail, so it needs to be looked into properly, but I think it’s fair to say that the way it was presented on Sunday, the real picture is a lot more complex than that.
“I was never party to a strategy devising or agreeing a legal strategy in relation to nursing home charges.”
