Ms Róisín Molloy:

It is important to note that we met with officials at every level, to whom we believed we were bringing new information in regard to what was happening at each level below. We met with management, who told us there were no policies or procedures in place which allowed for an investigation into Mark's death. Our response to that was, "Oh my God" because we knew that was not true. We then raised at regional level local management's opinion in regard to its carrying out an investigation into Mark's death. We knew fairly soon into the process that people were only paying lip-service to us. While during many meetings people were very emotional when apologising to us and saying that they were sorry about our son's death no action was being proposed. What we wanted at that stage was an acknowledgement of Mark's death and the seriousness of it and to prevent this from ever happening again. However, the importance of learning from Mark's death to ensure this did not happen again was completely lost on every member of the HSE. We kept going. We utilised the HSE's systems to have Mark's death investigated and to highlight patient concerns in Portlaoise hospital. We followed the HSE system, from which the HSE constantly departed.