Mr. Jim Breslin:

Deputies will be aware of the very tragic incident, resulting in the death of a patient in the maternity unit in UHG. A report into patient safety was conducted by HIQA. That report recommended that a national clinical guideline be developed to try to assist in similar situations in the future. The urgency of that, and public concern attaching to it, meant that it was necessary to develop that guideline as a matter of some urgency. Added to that was the very particular skills set required. Although in the period since then, we have developed this capability within the Department, this is not an area in which the Department had expertise nor is it an area in which there is a range of providers in the country. It involves of a mix of specialist clinical and economic skills that are not easily found. The Department was able to source a person with the requisite skills to conduct that research. They were not employed by UHG; this was an investigation into UHG. We provided the rationale for this in the annual report. I was not in the Department at the time it was done but when I did my 2014 return, because I had not signed off on this myself, I asked that the file be looked into very carefully and that the internal audit unit review it. It conducted a report for me and I was fully satisfied that the rationale given for conducting that, through a non-competitive procurement process, fully stood up both in the context of the public concerns around the tragic incident in Galway and the requisite experience, which is not commonly found within the jurisdiction.