The Travers report into illegal charges levied on patients in public nursing homes is expected to criticise officials in the Department of Health over the years for failing to bring the issue to the attention of ministers.
However the report, which is to go to Cabinet tomorrow, will also conclude that politicians since the late 1970s could have probed the issue further and raised more questions on it than they did.
The report, drawn up by former head of Forfás John Travers, examines "who knew what and when" in relation to the illegal charges. The document will be published on Tuesday afternoon.
The Government may have to repay more than EUR2 billion to more than 300,000 elderly people, their families and estates as a result of the illegal charges.
There were growing indications last night that Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin will be effectively cleared by the report.
Minster for Social and Family Affairs Séamus Brennan told RTÉ's last night that Mr Martin "was a conscientious Minister and that he would still be considered a conscientious Minister after Tuesday".
Mr Martin was interviewed by Mr Travers about what he knew of the controversy during his four-year period as minister for health up until last September.
Mr Martin was minister in 2003 when the then South Eastern Health Board submitted legal opinion to the Department that suggested that the charges levied on patients in public nursing homes and other longstay institutions were illegal.
Mr Martin has said that he never saw that legal advice and that he was absent from a key meeting with health board chief executives in December 2003 when the issue was discussed.
Informed sources said last night that the report would indicate that there was no evidence that the Minister had received a substantive briefing by the Department on the problem.
A spokeswoman for Mr Martin declined to comment on the Travers report last night. Mr Martin said on Friday that people should not jump the gun in relation to the report's findings.
Meanwhile, Week in Politics programme The Irish Times has learned that Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney is to cancel a planned visit to San Francisco this week for St Patrick's Day celebrations in order to deal with the fall-out from the Travers report .
A spokesman for the Minister said that she was remaining in Dublin "to deal with any issues that might arise following the publication of the report".
The decision to cancel the trip to the United States has fuelled speculation that the report could put pressure on a number of senior officials in the Department of Health.
Sources said that the report would indicate that the issue of the legality of nursing home charges had emerged on several occasions in the Department of Health since the late 1970s.
However, the report is expected to focus on briefings to ministers by civil servants about the problem over the years. Following the Supreme Court ruling on the illegal nature of the charges, Ms Harney claimed that there had been "systemic maladministration" in the Department of Health on the issue.
However, last Thursday she gave a public indication that the report could also criticise politicians.
She told the Dáil that "maladministration does not just affect public officials".
The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants has written to the Tánaiste expressing concern at remarks about maladministration.
