A closer look at the controversy that has been rumbling on for a number of weeks now.

But the Taoiseach said the issue is ‘different in substance’ to the nursing home charges story.

The co-author of the 2010 Who Cares Report, Fintan Butler, has rejected the Government’s assertion that the strategy for dealing with nursing home charges was "legitimate"

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Ms Shortall, co-leader of the Social Democrats, told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that she was minister of state with responsibility for primary care and did not have any role in terms of nursing home care or long stay care, and had not been briefed about the reported memo.

The Irish Times reports that Department official Shane Corr emailed Mr Varadkar on in December 2019, expressing concern that billions of euro in repayments of long-stay nursing home charges were being put “out of reach” of “largely old and helpless people”.

Speaking on Newstalk’s Pat Kenny show, Mr Varadkar said he did not receive the so-called ‘stealth’ memo in relation to the handling of legal claims around refunds over the State’s failure to provide nursing home care to older people.