Mr. Tony O'Brien:

In particular, in order that being identified should not be a barrier to making a disclosure, I have appointed Ms Leigh Gath as a confidential recipient who can receive disclosure at arm's length from the HSE, pursue the matter and never have to disclose the source of her information. One of the issues with the creation of the HSE is that it was set up without any description of what its culture ought to be. In our 2015-2017 corporate plan, which was approved by the Minister, we have committed ourselves, over the course of that time, to enabling four words to be the hallmarks of that culture, recognising that culture does not change instantaneously but is a long-term play. Those four words, which appear on the top of the letterhead I use to write out to people, are care, compassion, trust and learning. They are not intended as a description of the "as is" but as a description as to where we need to get to. As the person with responsibility for leading the HSE, that is a message I pursue vigorously every time I am engaged in any meeting with staff, town hall meetings and so on, as do other members of the management team and management of community health care organisations and hospital groups. We have to create a different understanding of the nature of the relationship that is required between the public health service, whatever its legal name may be, and society and the people who use or are dependent on those services.

We recognise that, right now, some people may be deterred from making protected disclosures. There is the formal protected disclosure route, which is effectively the route that was used in this case. However, there is also the confidential recipient in the form of Leigh Gath, and a number of issues have been satisfactorily dealt with in the intervening period since December 2014 when she took up that role. Many issues have been raised that had to be pursued and brought to appropriate conclusion where Ms Gath was able to act as a strong advocate in this regard.