Mr. Tony O'Brien:

To come back initially to some of the observations from Deputy Conway, myself and Mr. Healy travelled to Áras Attracta the Thursday before last, after we had become aware of the allegations, after staff had been put off duty and in advance of the broadcast of the programme. We walked the grounds and were in bungalow 3 and, in a respectful way, given her particular concerns around men, we met with Ms Ivy McGinty, Ms Mary Garvin and Ms Mary Maloney. They are non-verbal but they are not non-communicative. They are in my opinion very gentle souls and I would not say that we witnessed anything that could be called challenging behaviour by any manner or means. We also met with other residents in other parts of the facility and with the staff who are currently providing care. It was appropriate that we should visit but if anything, it made it all the more difficult to see the way those individuals had been treated because there was absolute disrespect for their basic humanity and for their rights as citizens of this country.

On this issue of the confidential recipient, which has been mentioned a couple of times, discussions with Ms Leigh Gath about taking that role were only concluded in the past 24 hours. We wanted to be able to identify both the process and name of the individual for the purposes of engaging in a discussion with participants in the summit today about aspects they felt were important in the context of that role. We had that discussion. She will be provided with office facilities and all that is required and will be based in Limerick. We will bring in staff to work with her who have had no prior engagement with the health service and who have relevant skills. Under the terms of the 2004 Act, she will be in receipt of a formal legal delegation from me giving her authority throughout the health service under the powers that are vested in me as - effectively - chief executive officer of the HSE. She will have access to legal counsel.

Ms Gath will be in a position to decide herself what she will do with each complaint. The majority, I expect, will be referred for action by the social care division and then she will be in a position to monitor the action that occurs. Where she thinks appropriate, she may refer to HIQA, the Garda Síochána or, dependent on the elements of the complaint - whether it has been partially dealt with before or whatever - she may seek to say that the complaint qualifies for consideration by the Ombudsman. The specific type of whistleblowing we are asking to be directed to her is on issues of abuse, neglect, mistreatment or failures in the safeguarding of vulnerable persons.

We are going to leave open the definition of "vulnerable persons". We do not want to create a context in which every possible complaint about every aspect of the health service lands on her desk because that would just make it more complicated for us to ensure the serious ones, in which we are most interested and in which whistleblowing is of key importance, would be dealt with; therefore, we will be directing people to the existing mechanisms for complaining about things generally. It is a large, complex service and there are many things about which people have legitimate complaints.

The confidential recipient will be assuming duties on Monday and arrangements will have been completed by then. We will communicate broadly about the establishment of the post of confidential recipient, how to connect with her and draw complaints to her attention. The key emphasis will be on the word "confidential". This is intended to remove the barrier, of which we are all aware, which sometimes prevents people from stepping forward, namely, the fear of identification, recrimination and retaliation. She will be able to ensure confidentiality. That is true not just for staff but also for service users who are in a position to express their views more clearly and others who may be in a position to make representations on behalf of clients - service users, citizens or whatever language we care to use throughout the system.