The Minister of State Ivor Callely, who attended a meeting in December 2003 at which the charges for long-stay nursing home residents were discussed, said yesterday he understood any mention of him in the Travers report would be "fairly minute".
Nothing was raised at that meeting that "would raise alarm bells". There was nothing "to give us signals that it was about to explode", he said.
He added that the nursing-home charges were a five-minute discussion in a long meeting. He recalled conflicting legal advice and being told definitive advice had to be obtained.
The meeting was the year-end review between senior management of the Department of Health and health board chief executives. Mr Callely was minister of State with responsibility for the elderly at the time.
As agreed, a letter was written in January 2004 to the Office of the Attorney General, requesting legal advice on the nursing home issue. That letter was never sent.
