Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair and Deputy Deasy for the outstanding work they have done in highlighting this issue. I also acknowledge the media and our national broadcaster for its in-depth coverage of the incredible injustice done to people in the Waterford foster home and for really bringing it home to the public. The committee received, at its last meeting, a very specific statement that an apology had been made. It is very difficult to imagine that this was a misunderstanding, as the HSE is now claiming. There cannot be a misunderstanding about an apology when it has been presented in such specific terms. There are serious questions to be asked about the nature of that so-called apology, how it came about and how it is now being categorically withdrawn. There is now a new formal apology recognising that a so-called misunderstanding took place. This is a very serious matter and, as Deputy Deasy has said, it is very hard for the people concerned and for this committee to take it as anything other than lying. It has been on the record of the committee in specific terms.

The very least the committee can do now is to request the HSE to put on the record of this committee the actual details of the apology and the circumstances that led to its statement that an apology had been given even though it was never given, and it was presented to this committee and to so many others as having been given. It raises questions as to whether certain State sectors are providing accurate information. We need to get to the bottom of it, and the Secretary General of the Department must be brought into the matter also. The HSE now seems to be a law unto itself and thinks it can behave willy-nilly and in any way it wishes in its dealings with the people in its care and with statutory bodies such as the Committee of Public Accounts. It must be rooted out and we need to get to the bottom of it. The matter should be a priority item on the agenda of the incoming Committee of Public Accounts.

I suggest that the committee ask the HSE to send a written statement explaining all the circumstances surrounding that so-called statement of misunderstanding regarding the apology. There is also the recommendation from the last committee meeting that the committee look to the Garda Commissioner once again regarding the contents of the case and the actual events that took place. The Secretary General of the Department should also be fully brought into the case to carry out a proper investigation to see how all of these matters transpired and how what appears to be a cover-up was allowed to continue for so many years with so much damage to all concerned.