A legal firm co-owned by a Minister of State acts as a debt collector for one of the country’s biggest private nursing home providers, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Fianna Fáil TD Catherine Ardagh was promoted to the junior ministerial ranks last month following the reshuffle triggered by Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae’s resignation from Government.

As part of her new Justice role, the 41-year-old Dublin South Central TD – a partner in Ardagh McCabe Solicitors, based in the heart of her constituency in Crumlin – was given special responsibility for international law, law reform and youth justice.

Despite her promotion and busy workload, Ms Ardagh is still currently carrying out work for her legal firm and was photographed outside her office on Friday lunchtime.

In response to queries from the MoS, Fianna Fáil last night said Ms Ardagh is in the process of ‘stepping back from private practice and dissolving her partnership’ in the firm.

Deputy Ardagh was elected to the Dáil in the 2024 General Election after serving an eight-year stint in the Seanad. Ardagh McCabe was registered as a business name in July 2018.

Ms Ardagh’s company acts as a debt collector on behalf of Highfield Healthcare, one of the biggest private healthcare operators in the State.

The legal firm was this weekend accused of employing heavy-handed tactics on behalf of its client and sending threatening letters seeking payments of large sums of money to the family of a former elderly patient who suffered from dementia.

The daughter of the patient, MoS journalist Nicola Byrne, said one of the letters she received from Ardagh McCabe was dated May 9, two weeks before Ms Ardagh’s ministerial promotion.

‘When I got the most recent letter from Ardagh McCabe, I looked up the company and saw that it was owned and run by a TD. Not only that but she’d just been made a Minister of State at the Department of Justice,’ Ms Byrne said.

‘I couldn’t believe my eyes. I rang her law office and asked to speak to her and the receptionist said she wasn’t there. I asked if she still works there and the receptionist said, “yes, but she’s not here.”

‘I felt sickened to think that a public representative and worse, a minister could be acting for a private nursing home provider attempting to extricate these type of fees from vulnerable families.’

Contacted on Thursday, a representative working at Ardagh McCabe said Ms Ardagh was not in the office at the time but would be in the following day.

During a visit to the office our reporter, posing as a friend of a potential client, was told Ms Ardagh was not taking on ‘new clients’ at this time.

On the Fianna Fáil website, the Minister for State lists her firm’s address as her constituency office. However, there is no signage to indicate there is a constituency office or any Fianna Fáil branding at the premises.

All TDs and Senators are obliged to make a Declaration of Interest listing their business interests and property holdings.

The most recent return lodged by Ms Ardagh for 2025 lists her occupation as ‘Solicitor/Notary public with Ardagh McCabe LLP at St Agnes Road, Crumlin, Dublin 12’.

Under the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) code of conduct, senior politicians serving in the Cabinet and as Ministers of State cannot be directors of companies.

They are also not allowed to work in professional practices while they are in office.

The rules state: ‘Office holders should not hold company directorships carrying remuneration. Even if the remuneration is not paid, it is regarded as undesirable for them to hold directorships.

‘An office holder should not carry on a professional practice while an office holder but may make arrangements for the maintenance of a practice until such time as she/he ceases to be an office holder and returns to the practice.’

In a statement, Fianna Fáil told the MoS: ‘On the day of her appointment, she immediately contacted her partner in the legal practice and communicated she would be withdrawing from the law practice with immediate effect and agreed with her partner she would discuss the orderly transition of clients and work in progress in the following days.

'The staff in the practice were also immediately advised Minister Ardagh was no longer available for any work and all queries were to be directed toward her partner in the firm.’

But Ms Byrne said that when she contacted Ms Ardagh’s firm on May 29, the day after her promotion, she was told the now Minister of State was still carrying out legal work for her practice.

In response to queries, Fianna Fáil said that on June 4 – ‘four working days after her appointment’, Ms Ardagh and her business partner ‘agreed a Deed of Dissolution to dissolve the partnership while ensuring an orderly transition of client work in a manner consistent with their client care and regulatory obligations’.

The party added: ‘This is all in line with the code of conduct for office holders whereby provision is made for an office holder to make arrangements for the maintenance of a professional practice for the duration of their time as an officeholder.’

Ms Byrne also criticised the aggressive and threatening tone taken by Ms Ardagh’s firm when acting as a debt collector on behalf of Highfield Healthcare.

The mother-of-two, whose father and mother died within ten months of each other recalled: ‘I got my first letter from debt collecting solicitors Ardagh McCabe days before Christmas – threatening High Court action if we didn’t pay the €19,000-plus per month fees charged [by Highfield Healthcare] for my elderly mother’s stay.

'That’s the equivalent of €236,000 per year.

‘The effect of the letter was horrendous. I was facing Christmas without both my parents who’d died within ten months of each other. 

'My parents’ estate wasn’t even settled at that point and their property wasn’t sold until 13 months later. I had to go into the nursing home with my husband and beg for them to back off.’

She said the family was then pursued for these fees even though staff at the nursing home group did not provide a contract or a detailed list of costs in writing before her late mother was admitted to the nursing home.

‘My mother had Alzheimer’s and was unable to stay at home anymore and so we moved her to this facility which says it specialises in care for dementia patients.

‘We had never agreed to those fees, we had no contract, they were never set down in writing for us. From the first day they were imposed on us, we told them we wanted to take my mother out of there.

‘The threats of legal action from Ardagh McCabe were all the more galling because from the first day I received the bill, I asked Highfield to discharge my mother into the public nursing home system.

'I even took her out of the facility on the advice of my GP and a social worker and brought her to the Mater hospital in an attempt to have her admitted into the public system.’

The MoS has previously reported how some private nursing homes have threatened to evict vulnerable elderly people forced into debt because they could no longer afford to pay exorbitant ‘extra’ fees demanded for standard care.

This arose after dozens of complaints about residents been charged ‘extras’ for basic items and services were made to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) and Sage Advocacy, the independent agency that represents older people in care.

In one case, a nursing home resident was charged €1,600 a month in rental fees for a medical-grade air mattress and dressings for wounds. Another pensioner was charged €85 a month for four years for an air mattress that could be bought for around €300.

Other complaints included nursing home residents being hit with monthly charges for ‘activities’ they were not even capable of participating in.

Fees were also imposed for the use of hoists to help frail people get out of their beds and for the use of chairs and exercise bikes.

Sage said it is aware of several cases in which family members are asked by nursing homes to sign contracts even though they do not have the legal authority to do so.

Chairty CEO Bibiana Savin told the MoS: ‘We have raised the issue of nursing home charges and the pressure some, not all, nursing home residents are under when charges are increased, with the Department of Health, Nursing Home Ireland, HIQA and the CCPC.

‘We frequently encounter nursing home residents who feel the pressure of increased nursing home charges. 

'Through individual case work we support people to navigate immediate difficulties.

‘We also see that some nursing homes are requesting bank statements as proof that a person can pay the charges, before they admit the person in the nursing home. 

'This should not happen, once a person has already been through a financial assessment process as part of their Nursing Home Support Scheme [Fair Deal].’

Speaking about her experience, Nicola Byrne said the role of the Fianna Fáil TD and Minister for State’s company in acting as a debt collector demanding payments from vulnerable families is ‘something that the Department of Justice needs to explain and [Taoiseach] Micheál Martin as leader of the Fianna Fáil party needs to explain as well’.

When contacted by the MoS, the Department of Justice headed by Ms Ardagh’s Fianna Fáil colleague, Minister Jim O’Callaghan, referred our queries to Fianna Fáil.

In its statement, Fianna Fáil said that, since her appointment as Minister of State, Ms Ardagh ‘has no ongoing financial interest, or management responsibilities, other than client transfer and an orderly dissolution of the practice’.

They added ‘transitional arrangements to withdraw from the practice’ will be completed by June 30, by which time the process ‘will have taken 23 business days to complete’.

Fianna Fáil said: ‘Minister Ardagh had no idea she would be appointed an officeholder on 28th May and, therefore, all the necessary work to dissolve the practice has had to take place in the short time since her appointment. 

'The practice is also making all necessary administrative and logistical adjustments including replacing the letterhead and updating the website and this will also be completed by 30th June.’

Fianna Fáil also said Ms Ardagh had notified the party ‘and colleagues that she was in the process of dissolving the practice’.

Highfield Healthcare did not return a request for comment.