Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

While I am not a member of the joint committee, I wanted, of course, to be here today and I thank the Chairman for allowing me to speak briefly.

I thank Róisín and Amy, Mark and Ollie for attending. It is sad they have to be here. We are all here to make sure, as far as we can, that this does not happen again. I know people will never forget Mark and Mary Kate.

Following on from Deputy Creighton’s comments, what, if anything is possible, would it take to bring closure? What would allow Mark and Róisín to say, “We have done our best by Mark and it was not in vain”?

The HIQA report states it cannot confirm services in Portlaoise hospital are safe while the HSE says they are safe. The most qualified people to speak about any hospital are the people who use it. Do the parents opposite believe Portlaoise is safe today?

I have to say to Róisín that it goes without saying that she is not a crazy woman. She is the most reasonable and restrained woman after what she has been through. I imagine others have been through this but did not have the ability or the wherewithal within themselves to do what she did. If she had not had that determination, ability or wherewithal in every manner and respect to pursue this, we still might not know what was going on in the hospital. We thank her for bringing that to our attention.

I know Mark raised some other issues about the whole way they want to shove this into the legal process. That is part of the public service; they send out solicitors’ letters to close matters down. That is standard in the public service and a culture which we need to change.