The refusal by the Government to accept responsibility for the blunders that led to the nursing homes fees debacle has been criticised by former ombudsman Kevin Murphy.
In one of the most forthright public interventions by a former holder of the office, Mr Murphy said the Government was not being properly held to account.
The failure of the Department of Health to properly charge for nursing home beds means the State must pay a compensation bill that could reach €2 billion.
In its inquiry report, the Oireachtas Health and Children Committee said there was "an urgent need" to clarify "the responsibilities of Ministers and the extent to which they can reasonably be held accountable for the actions of the department and agencies under their charge".
The former ombudsman said he was "appalled" that such a statement could be made after "80 years of parliamentary democracy".
"I think that the great parliamentarians that we have had the privilege to serve will be turning, if not squirming, in their grave," he said.
Mr Murphy was speaking at the launch of a project to inspect the health of the Republic's democracy by TASC, a social policy think-tank.
The Government is collectively responsible under Article 28.4.2 of the Constitution for "the departments of State administered by the members of the Government.
"Clearly the Government cannot be held responsible for the actions or inactions of individual civil servants of which they are not aware but corporate failures are clearly the collective responsibility of the Government, " Mr Murphy said.
"The Government may, of course, decide that a matter which has not been discussed and decided at Government, is the sole responsibility of the Minister in charge of the department, and it falls to the Government to decide in the secrecy of the Cabinet room how the Minister discharges his or her responsibility.
Where the Government had failed to "consider its responsibility when serious and protracted illegality by a department has taken place is a failure to perform its constitutional duty", he said.
Meanwhile, the Dáil and the Seanad were failing to hold the Government to account, partly because memberswere too busy dealing with constituency matters.
In addition, TDs showed a willingness "to toe the party line" rather than deal with issues on their merits, said Mr Murphy, who retired as ombudsman two years ago.
Fine Gael health spokesperson Dr Liam Twomey said Mr Murphy's criticisms supported his party's criticisms of the Travers report and the subsequent inquiry by the Oireachtas Health and Children committee.
"I specifically sought to have the conclusion that Minister Micheál Martin had failed to accept his responsibility as set out in legislation included in the report.
"Mr Murphy is quite right to be appalled by the report of that committee."
