John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am in a slightly embarrassing position today, being an employee of St. Vincent's and one who famously does not enjoy particularly good relations with the board of management, so I have to be careful. I would also like to acknowledge that I would be perceived as working for a competitor of the Beacon Hospital, which is a very fine institution, and for that reason I am going to recuse myself from asking any questions about the Beacon, because I think it would be inappropriate.

I have some questions that I ask the Chairman to put to St. Vincent's Healthcare Group. One thing that is troubling me is why Mr. Nicholas Jermyn is in the line management command and control structure dealing with this issue or correspondence relating to it. My understanding is that he is the former chief executive officer of the organisation, which now has an acting chief executive officer and a deputy chief executive officer and a number of senior management staff who would be in line management over issues such as procurement and financial oversight. I am a little curious as to why a person whom we were led to believe had the role of a consultant specifically on strategic matters is the person who is actually dealing with correspondence in this regard. I might also just ask whether it is possible that our HSE colleagues may be able to cast some light on this, because they would have an interest and an historical opinion on management structures in St. Vincent's.

I do not wish to personalise this at all, but I do not think it is appropriate that somebody from KPMG is conducting an independent investigation. Mr. Menton, the chairman of the hospital, is also a senior partner at KMPG, and I am sure everybody is acting in perfectly good faith-----