If there was a "political blame game" to be played in the nursing charges controversy, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour were all in contention, Paddy McHugh (Ind, Galway East) said.
The Opposition sought a political scapegoat in Micheál Martin but the issue had rolled on for 29 years. In that time there were four Labour ministers for health, two from Fine Gael and seven from Fianna Fáil.
"It has been nauseating to witness in this House people engaging in manufactured hysteria since this issue arose," said Mr McHugh, who described the handling of the issue as a "cock-up of monumental proportions".
Paudge Connolly (Ind, Cavan-Monaghan) asked what method the Health Service Executive would use to refund money to people illegally charged for long-stay nursing home care. "Will it use the same method as when people owe money to the HSE?"
Health boards charged interest of 6 per cent or 7 per cent.
"To translate that into today's terms, £1 in 1976 is equivalent to €9.42 now."
Mr Connolly also suggested that "tracking devices" should be put on departmental files. "It is a wonderfully strange coincidence how files can go missing at vital times," he said.
Green Party health spokesman John Gormley said Minister for Health Mary Harney's reference to "extreme maladministration" in the department was "preparing the way for civil servants to get it in the neck".
Department general secretary Michael Kelly "has accepted his responsibility in the debacle. However, Government politicians have simply washed their hands. No one has assumed political responsibility."
Sinn Féin spokesman Caoimhghin Ó Caolain said the Opposition was expected to believe that Mr Kelly was the "chief culprit in this matter, and as a result he has been penalised by being moved out of the department".
But he had been moved to the Higher Education Authority. "If the Government considers this civil servant culpable, why did it not take steps to dismiss him as it is empowered to do? If he was not culpable or negligent, why was he moved or required to move?
"Does the Government fear that a dismissal, if it were challenged in open court, might further expose the responsibilities of ministers in this debacle?"
