Government's secret plan to block repayment of illegal nursing home charges

That was back around when we all had to tighten our belts wasn't it?

Fair play to your family for looking after your Grandad like that.

At the same time, saying the government of that time would have acted differently doesn't stand up. We don't know how that alternative scenario would have played out and it's getting into the realm of speculation.

I haven't been told anything of the sort and if you believe that your statement there to be the blanket truth of whats going on here, than you either haven't read up on it, or you're delusional.

Really, some of you are seeing what you want to see here. Take a bit of free advice, don't source your opinions in the swill of the Irish(!) Daily Mail.

No, you think that that's what they were told.

Thats not what they were told.

12 different Attorneys General, did not advise half a dozen Governments to perpetuate an illegal act. Interpretation of legislation going back 70 years, and covering a reference period of 40 years - including a redress scheme brought in 17 years ago - are all at play here.

If you see this as black and white and your opinion has become black and white, then you don't understand the issue.

Very easy to take myself seriously, compared to the hysterics around here about the government falling down. You would think that some of the posters here are characters from the children's story Chicken Licken.

The AG is doing a report on this which will be available next week. Usually the FFG government kick to touch for a year or 10 by saying they have requested a full report. They know they are cornered now.

Fine Gael New Politics 2011

"The first task for a new government is to champion the cause of the Citizen. It must make the needs of the Citizen the central driver of policy"

If the words of the Attorney General were sufficient to declare whether something was legal or illegal, then we would never have a court case involving the government.

All that statement does is reconfirm that one Attorney General believed that the government was acting ultra vires (which has a meaning of beyond its powers which is different to the latin illegalis which means illegal) but no court has ruled as such, and it remains just opinion. Furthermore, even in a situation where an Attorney General believed that a government was acting ultra vires and a court also confirmed that to be the case, such a court may not find that compensation is due as a result and that the government was acting reasonably in the circumstances. We are therefore a long way from a declaration that the government acted illegally and robbed pensioners of their money which seems to be the tenor of the accusations.

I am fully aware that I am posting inconvenient truths for the mob, but I will not be intimidated by threats of being reported when I am only setting out the true position.

I missed the start of the PT coverage. Did they say what era that decision was made to deny payments to the disabled?

Which ministers were involved?

I would say one more little nudge, and they will be over the edge.

Is that nudge going to come from the left or the right?

This on top of the electric bill scandal today.

Go on, do tell the class how that's Varadkar's fault too.

Let me explain something to you and to you all.

For the Government to fall, it needs to loose its majority in the Dáil. At the moment, without any independents, that majority is 1.

It might as well be 1,000.

Yes, there have been stupid Lanigan's Ball issues with some of the more naive and indulgent Greens and all has ultimately been forgiven, but this is senior hurling now, it is the WORST possible time for a clumsy and disruptive election, quite apart from any wavering Greens knowing that their political careers are over if they fall out of line.

Labour and the SDs don't want one either, knowing that SF is their greatest rival on the left, so they won't be pushing it either.

And the Dáil is certainly not going to fall over some ancient legacy issue that originated before the Taoiseach was even born!

Feb 2025 lads, no sooner. Start sharpening your pencil collection.

It is only a matter of time before the Adolph Hitler/Downfall memes start circulating. FFG TDs will be turning on each other like cornered rats in order to save their seats.

Regards...jmcc