Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I come back this morning to the case of the O'Hara family. I understand the Health Service Executive is in discussions with the family about a care package. Until this is concluded, I will not return to yesterday's further misrepresentation by the Taoiseach.

On the issue raised by Deputy Kenny, I point to the question of political accountability for this scandal. The Taoiseach did not answer the question about how much the scheme will cost but the spinners he put out, after he refused to answer questions about it in the Dáil, said it will cost €1 billion. Is this the case or will it cost more or less than that? What is the Taoiseach's response in terms of his political accountability for the issue of illegal nursing home charges?

The Minister, Deputy Martin, claims he got the brief on this matter but did not read it. We know the two Ministers of State at his then Department read it and we know his advisors were present and that they now say they did not read it. In respect of the critical missing file that was referred to the Attorney General and about which we were told there was a conflict of evidence, we now have the evidence of a principal officer. Mr. Hardy makes clear it was his understanding the letter had gone to the office of the Minister. Moreover, he told the committee that "everybody else in the Department was of the same view".

More pertinently, we now have an e-mail from the workshare partner of the person who prepared the file for the Attorney General. She says in this e-mail, which did not find its way into the Travers report, that she was called in my Mr. Michael Corban in the Minister's office. Of this meeting she says:

He remarked that the issue seemed complicated and he asked me if I would explain it to him. My understanding was that he was about to give the submission to the Minister and wanted to be able to explain generally what it was about. As far as I recall, I said something along the lines that it was about the need to change legislation but that the Minister would need to read the submission for himself as it was quite detailed.

That did not get into the Travers report and if it did——

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