This letter is entirely unacceptable. This relates to a number of questions, but there was one particular question I asked, which was on the numbers of people who were affected by sections 28 and 29, if I am correct, and the disability services accommodation. We had asked for this in a number of engagements with the HSE.
I remind members that on 2 February, I asked specific questions in respect of the numbers affected, including the number of individuals, the number of centres affected, the number of people who had appealed and who had not appealed, etc. These are people who, it subsequently transpired, were eligible for the long-term payments but were never informed that they were eligible, or their representatives were never informed that they were eligible. On 2 February, we asked for those figures by the end of the meeting, and Mr. Stephen Mulvany said it would not be possible to get anything before the end of the meeting. The Cathaoirleach asked if we could have a reply within two weeks. I asked why Mr. Mulvany would not be able to get that information on the day. He said:
We have to have some time to consider it. We will absolutely comply with the two-week requirement.
The following week, we had the Secretary General of the Department of Health, Mr. Robert Watt, before us and again we tried to get answers in that respect. I was told last week that people would revert to me, but we have not received further information. Mr. Watt said: "I believe they said they would revert within two weeks", and he actually went on to quote the Cathaoirleach and reiterate the position of two weeks, which would have been a week after that meeting or 16 February. Here we are receiving a letter, a full month after that, which indicates that the HSE is currently engaging with the Department of Health, stating "You will appreciate that many of the records are old by nature, and hence we need to allow this process to conclude before responding to more detailed requests." I understand that the Department has advised that this process will take a number of months.
This is stonewalling again. The entire debacle and scandal around the long-term nursing home charges re-emerged in January as a major issue, because it implicated many serving members of the current Cabinet, and we have found that there has been a policy of obstruction and denial of people in respect of what they were entitled to. In this instance, and particularly regarding the questions I put, we were talking about people who through the process that was put in place at the time were found to be eligible. These were people with profound disabilities in what were described as voluntary nursing homes. I do not think it is acceptable, and I ask that we write to the Secretary General, Mr. Watt, relaying what he told us on 9 February, and asking him for that information by the end of this month. If not, I propose that we change our work programme to invite Mr. Mulvany and Mr. Watt back to the committee's first meeting after Easter because they committed to providing us with information that has long been denied to people who have been denied their entitlements. They committed to the committee that they would have it, and now they are coming back two months later to say that this will take a number of further months. It is not tolerable.