Former Health Minister Simon Harris has said that he is "comfortable that the Government acted in good faith" by pursuing a controversial legal strategy on nursing home charges.
The Government has found itself embroiled in controversy in recent days over allegations it "illegally charged" some older people for nursing home stays.
From 1970, people with medical cards were entitled to free nursing home stays. However, due to a lack of places, some people had to pay for care in private homes.
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It has been alleged that successive Governments used a legal strategy that saw them attempt to settle these cases out of court as they did not believe they would win the cases. The cases were settled at the latest possible opportunity, meaning only those who could afford a legal case could get some of the money back.
It has been suggested that Minister Harris was briefed on this strategy when he was in the Department of Health.
Speaking in Dublin on Thursday morning, the now-Justice Minister said that he must have been briefed on the matter.
He contended, however, that he was "comfortable" when asked.
Minister Harris said: "It's very clear that the position in relation to a difference of liability between public nursing homes and private nursing homes has been in place since at least 2006.
"Perhaps something that hasn't been commented on, that is important in terms of context and accuracy is actually the Oireachtas voted in, I think 2006 to put in place a Redress Scheme, where the Oireachtas was actively accepting that there was liability in relation to public nursing homes that didn't exist in relation to private.
"As the Taoiseach has said in the Dail it is likely that every Health Minister before him and since was aware of that.
"A number of cases were clearly settled.
"I am comfortable that Governments, successive governments, acted in good faith on the principle that has been in place for many years, if not many decades and probably to this day, that there is a difference between public and private healthcare in Ireland, and public and private nursing homes.
"That is a position that I don't believe was secret. That was a position that I believe was crystallised very much when the Oireachtas passed a Redress Scheme in, I think, 2006.
"It's also a position that has been a matter of significant public debate and record on a number of occasions since then."
Minister Harris said that while people can "quite rightly debate" policy, successive Governments applied a principle based on "legal advice" that there was a difference between private and public care.
The Attorney General will prepare a document for next Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has maintained that the story has been "misrepresented" and that no one was prevented from taking a court case.
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